alt Hacker Newsi'm surprised anybody coming from clojure would say this.
you absolutely do NOT need to learn paredit to write lisp, any modern vim/emacs/vscode plugin will just handle parentheses for you automatically.
that said, if you do learn paredit style workflow - nobody in any language in any ide will come even close to how quickly you can manipulate the codebase.
I realize how lame it is to relitigate Clojure's downsides every time it comes up. I fell into the same trap that annoys me about Elm threads: people who haven't used it in a decade chiming in to remind everyone they didn't like some aspect of it. Wow, such contribution.
It's like seeing that a movie is playing at the theater so you show up only to sit down next to people to explain your qualms with it, lolz. Sometimes you need to let others enjoy the show.
The OP of this thread even said all that needed to be said "The learning curve is steep but very much worth it" yet we're trapped in this cycle because someone had to embellish it with a listicle.
I take my post back.