As a non-Lisper: In short, macros are cool because, instead of hacking the compiler and groveling through its weird data structures to add language features, y

As a non-Lisper: In short, macros are cool because, instead of hacking the compiler and groveling through its weird data structures to add language features, you can add language features in the language itself, because the language is already traditionally expressed in parse trees. Phrased this way, I don't see why this is a life-changing revelation.