I think SETF only reassigns a variable that's already been declared. DEFVAR defines a dynamically-scoped global variable, no? So why doesn't Common Lisp let you write `(VAR new-var new-val)` like every single other language, and have it declare a variable in the current scope? Unless there's a good reason, this is yet another obstacle to these languages being adopted by anybody except the die-hards.

If you want to carefully delimit scope, doesn't Common Lisp (and other Lisps) provide PROGN? Seems like a less complicated approach.

> I'm not sure what you mean about the difference between LET and LET* (the latter simply lets subsequent variable declarations refer to previously declared variables in the same block

Why does LET even exist as an alternative to LET*? Why does Lisp even bother making this distinction?