Emacs is essentially a Lisp-machine. Yes, I understand that this deviates from the traditional notion of a "Lisp-machine" since it's not hardware-based; nonetheless, it still fits the bill.

If you're eager to learn Lisp (not just Common Lisp, but any dialect), why not take advantage of a Lisp machine for that purpose? When you say, "I don't want to learn Emacs," you're basically saying, "I don't want to learn Lisp." You need to know Lisp to grok Emacs, you need to write it, you need to embrace it; otherwise, you're not using Emacs, you're just a passenger.