> Do you think I would have done something as heavy-handed as compile s-expressions at runtime if it weren't necessary?

Why not, if the language makes it simple? I am not claiming that Lisp does not have more powerful abstractions than C, just that they are not usually essential to any given feature in the application.

If Lisp is actually part of the user interface, then clearly there is no way to avoid having a Lisp interpreter. This is begging the question though.