Do We Want Lisp Macros?

I enjoyed this book

https://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html

but concluded the real magic was in the functions and macros were the cherry on top. Most of the tricks discussed in that book apply in Python too, and he avoids the kind of macros that deeply transform programs which are the kind of macros most unique to Lisp.

If you need macros, something smells.