shrug Just different experiences I guess. I should note this isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison. I am using a lot of discipline in my JS project. I'm writing the code test-first most of the time, and I only have one global variable in the whole project.
Where as in clojure, the scope of name spaces is generally smaller, while the errors are more cryptic, I agree. The line number that it points you to and use of the repl allows one to dissect the function in great detail and by checking the incoming data and outgoing data, the bug becomes much clear. At least in my experience.