> no cop outs with "I use {bolt-on sub-language that makes parent language more concise}" (that's not a mainstream language then)

Why is "I use {bolt-on} that makes {parent language} more concise" a cop out? The bolt-on could be a macro language or an IDE that does collapsing of common patterns. If it makes it easier to find a bug in a 100-line function in the parent language, or to not generate those bugs in the first place, then the {bolt-on} isn't a cop out.