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The reason the Go developers cited is fast compile times, as well as the belief that LLVM is "too big". I don't agree with these: LLVM compile times are fine for ahead-of-time compilation, and LLVM is big because it does important things.

I do have mixed feelings about LLVM for safe GC'd languages, though. LLVM is full of undefined behavior, and its support for precise moving tracing GC is not widely used. So I can definitely sympathize with not wanting to use LLVM for Go, but not for the reasons they cited.

>LLVM compile times are fine

What constitutes 'fine' depends on workflow, size of project, machine horsepower, and personal preference. Some projects require a bit more compile -> experiment -> change -> compile -> experiment -> change than others.

I would recommend a language with a repl for that kind of project

The Go FAQ says they are working on it, and they mention the difficultly making some changes from C conventions leading them to not use it initially. https://golang.org/doc/faq#What_compiler_technology_is_used_...

fast compile times is a core value for Go would be one reason.