I disagree that compiler analysis/optimizations would be considered under 'systems', I would expect that kind of work to be published in PLDI, which is definitely the PL community. Systems is more OSDI/NSDI/SOSP.
Metaprogramming also has a rich history in traditional PL venues like POPL and ICFP, such as the Scheme/Racket work on macros, Template Haskell and friends, staged computation work a-la MacroML.