Good stuff; resonates with the reasons I've stayed away entirely. How much time have you invested in checking out Clojure? The Clojure community while a bit small is fairly hot. If you find the learning curve intimidating, but haven't taken much time to dig in, give it maybe 10 solid hours and I think you'll love it. The syntax is a tiny bit off-putting at first for a non-Lisper, but once it clicks, it clicks HARD.

As I got into it, I discovered that I have to hold myself back from getting too crazy too quickly. It's just that easy.