That's clever insight. If it was lisp from the beginning, maybe would be more straightforward. It's as simple as code can get, according to Uncle Bob, while still being expressive. It's no wonder Emacs still reigns supreme. Well, I am happy with Niri's kdl approach for the time being.
It can be Lisp if you want it to be. Just use Fennel. That's what my Hyprland config is written in.
I saw an interview with one of the main contributors for Neovim and they use fennel for everything. All roads lead to Lisp