I have also developed a strong preference for the latter. I was always on the fence until I got my hands on generative testing (quickcheck, etc).

Now I want the powerful language and I can just slam it with generated tests to get the same level of confidence as the guardrail languages (in practice definitely, although I understand this is not true in theory, so unspit your coffee Haskell people).

Oh right and this is currently Clojure, so a functional language that definitely does help me make a great product. Less time implementing correctly means more time for product refinement.