You should try using R; the real world performance is actually better than Julia in every way that matters. Yes, Julia has a better data frame object; that's why we use data.tables().
Also Wes probably got the idea for row indeces from R.
Tbh R's performance is only an issue when you deal with really big datasets. Most of the time R does just fine, and has a lot more libraries that Julia can ever hope to have.
I have used Julia a bit and really enjoyed it. The only reason I do not use it for work is lack of libraries. I know I could 'be the change I want to see in the world' and contribute, but given the pace of things at work I cannot fit that in on the company dime at this time...
Could you describe what kind of libraries you found lacking in Julia? I did get a feeling that lots of long-tail stuff was missing, when I was looking through Julia packages some time ago, but only in a vague "this doesn't seem that exhaustive" sense. Knowing what specifically has been found lacking would be useful.
I do like Pandas concept of row indices, which I know Julia (and I believe, R) lack.