[dragonwriter]

> So why not just think in terms of lists, which can be nested, rather than cons-cells, which are only rarely used for anything other than to construct lists?

Cons cells are used to construct other higher-level data structures, like trees, not just lists.

But this whole discussion seems to just be a version of the usually static vs. dynamic typing discussion, where the “you have to think in terms of cons not lists” side is the static typing side saying that without handcuffs making it statically impossible to do the wrong thing you can't ever stop thinking about the things that could be done even if you aren't doing them and the “you can think in terms of lists without a problem” is the dynamic typing side saying “no, we actually don’t need to think about other possibilities unless we actively choose to use them”.