As a sidenote, square brackets are harder to type on Finnish/Swedish keyboards than ordinary parenthesis. The former requires Alt Gr + {8,9}, the latter Shift + {8,9).
(Why am I using the Finnish keyboard layout to edit code? A bad habit from the past, admittedly.)
Isn't trimming the fat (so to speak) from Common LISP - thus unfettering its development - a far larger accomplishment than that article gives it credit for?
Yes. (spoken by the article's writer). I had no intention of downplaying the accomplishment, just pinpointing it. All that remains is just (just!) performing the unfettered development. Not something to be downplayed either.