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Clojure clearly assembles various ideas as well, so your criticism is only effectively leveled at a quote from Lattner which feels very superficial.

Surely every language designer including Hickey thinks they are assembling the best set of features for their goals.

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I guess I am struggling to get across what I mean.

I see Hickey as having a specific, focused, goal about enabling simplicity (given his specific meaning for that word) and yes I totally agree that every designer, including Hickey, does as you say.

What I was trying to get across was that I don’t see the guiding principle that guide the selection of those “best” features to include so much as “there’s this great stuff” that we must include.

Does that make more sense? Or should I put down my shovel?

I get what you're saying, and I get the same feeling from most modern languages. They lack conceptual integrity. It's sort of spreading like a virus, even C++ fell into the same trap lately. Whole system design is difficult, really difficult, tear your hair out difficult. Accumulating features is a Sunday walk in the park in comparison; until the pile tips over, that is.

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