> Haskell functions are not Lisp functions. Lisp functions take a list of arguments, so `apply` should apply to a list of argument.

I understand how currying works, thanks, but that doesn't change the fact that $ is not equivalent to apply. A version of apply that dealt with curried functions would just have to fold over a list, and I don't think it could be properly generalised in Haskell's type system (but I"m not an expert at Haskell).

For your definition of apply, Lisp-1's don't have it, because as you said, you'd just call the damn function. Lisp-2's sort of have it, but it's called funcall. Regardless, your definition of apply is not what apply is in Lisp.