Void Linux. Can’t say enough good things about it. Feels like arch but more minimal in the base install and less of a hassle than gentoo.

Git and symbolic links still.

Ive heard good things about GNU Stow.

I’ll agree the emacs on ramp is widely regarded as a barrier to entry on CL. I’ve heard good things about the Alive plug-in for vs code though. Also stuff like emacs4cl and portacle in theory make it easier, but I don’t disagree.

With that said, using an editor built on a lisp to work on lisp as its advantages if you can get over that initial hurdle.

Common Lisp!

It can be a little esoteric if you don’t have experience with the paradigms, but I’ve never used a language that felt more free.

On SBCL you have typing support, CLOS provides an OO interface, and it lends itself well to functional style programming (despite not having a type system as powerful as say Haskell). Additionally, the ecosystem is quite stable and mature, any library of functionality you might need is likely available.