“we’re back where we started four years ago, hard coding everything, except now in a much crappier language.”

Not sure if I agree with this. A proper designed DSL has the advantage of being much closer to the domain of the problem it is supposed to solve. Your code written in the DSL now might end up as 'hard coded' part of the application, but it likely conveys much more meaning in much less code because it is tailored to the core functionality of the application.