If these things appeal to you check out lisp (clojure is my personal recommendation)
Lisp is built around cons cells and the linked list. But it has seperate containers of various types.
Lua is built around the Lua table, which can function as a list, array, and dictionary/hash table. You can then build any other data structure from tables easily. With a metatable, you then also get read-only tables, objects and classes, and more.
Now if someone were to design a modern Lisp based around tables...
Check out clojure - advanced data structures/primitives + immutability(functional programming)
I have been mulling over better support for immutable data structures in Lua, but I haven't figured out a good and clean design yet.
I agree, it's an intriguing possibility. There was a thread about this a while ago:
Instead, it has seemed more like simply stepping from a clean, compact room into a large, similarly clean and smooth room but with depth you hadn't imagined before.
Well, that and learning Emacs compared to ST2 is a bit of a step at the same time.