[sitkack]

I don't understand how that wouldn't qualify as a Lisp? Does it matter what the level below is implemented out of?

[agentultra]

Lisp is more than just parenthesis, just as Python is more than just whitespace-delimited blocks of text.

We can do some neat tricks by transforming a parenthetical syntax to Python AST that may even seem like Lisp some of the time... but the semantics are and will always be Python without stretching truth and logic a little.