I think Elm gets old after a couple weeks when you realize how handicapped it is as a language. Personally, I think something like Reason/OCaml is a great place to start. Haskell is a good choice too but laziness adds an additional hurdle. The core of Haskell is actually pretty simple; it's algebraic data types, parametric polymorphism, and typeclasses.

> If only weren't web only and run as a private project.

Yeah, the way the project is run is troubling.