Definitely. If you're using Clojure on the JVM, you definitly should read up on Java exceptions even if the errors have improved already, as it'll help you debug things, but the default error messages in Clojure has improved since then. Same if you're dealing with ClojureScript, you'll need to understand JavaScript errors and stack traces then.

Probably a good starting point for people today is go straight for Babashka, easy to get started and fast: https://github.com/babashka/babashka

The error messages were what got me to stop using Clojure when I first tried it out several years ago, the revamped error messages are what helped me to stick with it to the point of building out a complex production system. Dramatic improvement.

I’d say this is still the weakest part.

They've improved over the years, but they're still terrible compared to something like Rust. There are more ways to sidestep the issue though, if you develop with Spec and generative tests etc.

Yes, they got a lot better in Clojure 1.9.

Not an answer, but... I do think that after you've used Clojure for a while, you get used to the Java stacktraces. I mean it has the line number of the error, it can't be that bad, right? Maybe I've never experienced a language with stellar error messages.