I'm not sure there is a point worth debating. Hygiene is left to the programmer and the facilities exist to write "safe" macros (gensym). Debugging isn't terrib

I'm not sure there is a point worth debating. Hygiene is left to the programmer and the facilities exist to write "safe" macros (gensym). Debugging isn't terribly difficult with macro-expansion facilities. The only "problem" with them, if you can call it that, is that newbies like to over-use them once they learn them. However that problem goes away with time. Macros in the hands of an intermediate-to-experienced programmer are powerful tools. They remove patterns from your code. They allow you to modify the compiler to efficiently run your program. And all sorts of good things. People arguing that X "is too powerful" are saying that nobody needs a combine harvester when a team of farmers with scythes will do.