Factor addresses some of these concerns and instead of giving you a bare metal REPL you get a Smalltalk-like image: https://factorcode.org/
It's rather neat.
It's rather neat.
I'm not sure but I think John Benediktsson is still the maintainer, and at least a few years ago he was active in their Discord server. His blog is a very good resource. Some people are doing AoC:s in Factor, also worth a look.