This is the dumbest thing in the universe (in context of a Clojure discussion) that I keep seeing parroted over and over. So you have to type "recur <args>" instead of the actual function name + <args> for the exact same effect. If you can get over that aesthetic "sin" then you have your TCO in effect. I don't even find it mildly inconvenient...and even prefer the "shortcut" syntax vs explicitly repeating my function name.

Right. Different platforms have different priorities. But tail calls will be coming to the JVM eventually.