To be fair, this project is not a CL Emacs. It's a separate editor doing its own thing that happens to share the same keybinds and a few architectural decisions.
Sure, I get what you mean. Reminds me of the whole "GNU plus Linux" thing. I think it's more a matter of setting expectations, a lot of users come in expecting it to behave like or be compatible with GNU Emacs, when it's not trying to do that. What comes to my head when I think of "CL Emacs" is a CL variant of a project like Guile Emacs, Remacs, etc. and not a standalone editor. You're right, but I'd venture to say most hear the word "Emacs" and only associate it with GNU Emacs.