There is and has always been a lot of FUD around Lisp, and Common Lisp in particular. You even mentioned a few examples. My explanation on why this is the case is that learning Common Lisp really takes some time and dedication, but our lazy brains try hard to avoid that and find silly excuses instead (Too many parentheses!).
> are there any compelling reasons for an average Joe programmer like me to start learning Common Lisp in 2019?
If you manage to use Common Lisp in a project, you get an enormous boost to productivity. It is the best language for 'getting stuff done' that I know of. Even if you cannot use Common Lisp directly, knowing it will stop you from reinventing a lot of wheels. Greenspun's tenth rule is real.
Common Lisp is probably in its best shape ever. There is finally a good package manager (https://www.quicklisp.org/), plenty of documentation (https://common-lisp.net/documentation), and active communities on reddit, #lisp and elsewhere (http://planet.lisp.org/).
There is and has always been a lot of FUD around Lisp, and Common Lisp in particular. You even mentioned a few examples. My explanation on why this is the case is that learning Common Lisp really takes some time and dedication, but our lazy brains try hard to avoid that and find silly excuses instead (Too many parentheses!).
> are there any compelling reasons for an average Joe programmer like me to start learning Common Lisp in 2019?
If you manage to use Common Lisp in a project, you get an enormous boost to productivity. It is the best language for 'getting stuff done' that I know of. Even if you cannot use Common Lisp directly, knowing it will stop you from reinventing a lot of wheels. Greenspun's tenth rule is real.