I don't think Paul ever envisioned Lisp evolving into something like Clojure, where macros indeed are a bit less than a first-class citizen. And I think the whole adage of "First rule of macro club - don't write macros. Second rule of macro club - don't dispute the first rule...", etc. became a thing only with Clojure. I don't disagree with you - genuine use cases for macros are uncommon. Yet it's an instrument - nothing's wrong with using it properly. Knowing when and how is a skill, experienced Lispers indeed - rarely reach for it.