Having a REPL open is not the same thing as a notebook, if you feel like that, cool I guess.
That thread is old and Julia can cache compiled code now from 1.9 and onward. However, it can not distribute the cached code(yet).
Writing the fastest possible real-time application in c/c++ has the same principles as in Julia. It's not as shoe-horned as you might believe.
When developing Julia, the developers chose some design decisions that affected the workflow of using the language. If it doesn't fit your needs that's cool, don't use it. If you are frustrated and like to try the language come to discourse, people are friendly.