There are some surprises. And I do think common lisp has a lot of better parts. But, at the end of the day I find elisp fine for a scripting like language. And I love how accessible every line of elisp in my machine is.
This actually reminds me that one thing that helps a lot, is to actively explore some of the code you are reliant on. I found elisp (and, well, lisp) a lot more intimidating before I started perusing code. The pragmatic approach so much lisp code goes for is refreshing and goes a long way to justify why some choices that may feel odd actually work really really well.
There are some surprises. And I do think common lisp has a lot of better parts. But, at the end of the day I find elisp fine for a scripting like language. And I love how accessible every line of elisp in my machine is.