You're assuming that tech is a meritocracy (it very much is not).
You're implying that if a tool is archaic, things cannot be done with it (also not true).
You're also explicitly saying that the features James mentioned are esoteric, which is easily disproven by the fact that many mainstream languages have them nowadays.
The master's computer engineering program at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Portugal, starts off with Scheme in the first semester. The fourth year includes logic programming with Prolog.
You're implying that if a tool is archaic, things cannot be done with it (also not true).
You're also explicitly saying that the features James mentioned are esoteric, which is easily disproven by the fact that many mainstream languages have them nowadays.