"If your language doesn't have a REPL, your language is less productive."
I think what you really want here is fast compiles and iterations. You can do that without a REPL if using a language that compiles ultra-fast. Industrial BASIC's I used a long time ago compiled in a split second with me seeing the results immediately. Wirth-style languages tend to be able to do that. I hear Go compiles really fast. The wait doesn't really matter at that speed. Highly-optimized, slower compiles and tests can run overnight in background on dedicated machine, too.
I think what you really want here is fast compiles and iterations. You can do that without a REPL if using a language that compiles ultra-fast. Industrial BASIC's I used a long time ago compiled in a split second with me seeing the results immediately. Wirth-style languages tend to be able to do that. I hear Go compiles really fast. The wait doesn't really matter at that speed. Highly-optimized, slower compiles and tests can run overnight in background on dedicated machine, too.