Part of it is that it compiles to Python bytecode, and took the simplest route of adopting Python's not at all lisplike scope. With `let`, you have a visual clue of variable scope; Hy had a broken `let`, and then got rid of it completely. Now it looks like there's a new `let` that might make more sense. I haven't used it in a couple years.

But that's not the only problem. It has the same feeling I get from Clojure and the various lisps that compile to javascript; it just doesn't feel divorced enough from its parent language to be satisfying in itself. I'd rather write lisp than Python, sure, but except for a few libraries I'd like to be able to use, I don't see much reason to prefer Hy over Racket or some other similarly-mature Scheme, which would have somewhat fewer libraries, but would feel like a consistent and self-contained language.