i think you're thinking that Lispification is some kind of goal for the language, but it's not. the lispininess is just one aspect of the language, which is why

i think you're thinking that Lispification is some kind of goal for the language, but it's not. the lispininess is just one aspect of the language, which is why i think calling it a lisp isn't fair to Mathematica -- it's more powerful/abstract/general than that (in particular because everything is essentially quoted by default - though in their raw forms i suppose both lisp and Mathematica are essentially equivalently capable). the precise character of the lispy aspects of the language (eg the language not "really" having safe-locked closures) is imo just an implementation detail.