[kenko]

Why would they only be useful in strict languages? You don't need a macro to write `unless` in Haskell, but you do to (say) automatically generate typeclass membership given a datatype, or autogenerate lenses, and that use is orthogonal to evaluation strategy.

[jwhite]

I guess parent is just saying that macros allow programmer control of evaluation order, which you can't get otherwise in a strict language, but you can with laziness.

The point could have been worded better I think.

[stchang]

It's a misunderstanding that has unfortunately caught on among many Haskell programmers. People who say "macros are only useful in strict languages" mistakenly think that macros can only be used to delay evaluation. Of course, there are many more uses of macros, as you point out. Macros can define new binding forms, e.g., in Racket, pattern matching is a library, while it in Haskell it must be part of the core language. Macros are also useful for abstracting over non-first-class language forms like top-level definitions, import/export statements, and even type definitions.