Regarding your mention of compiler magic and Swift, I don’t know much about the language, but I have read a handful of discussions/blogs about the compiler and the techniques used for its implementation. One of the purported benefits/points of pride for Swift that stood out to me and I still remember was something to the effect of Swift being fundamentally against features/abstractions/‘things’ being built in. In particular they claimed the example of Swift not having any literal types (ints, sized ints, bools, etc) “built in” to the compiler but were defined in the language.

I don’t doubt your point (I know enough about Swift’s generic resolution crapshow during semantic analysis to be justified in assuming the worst) but can you think of any areas worth looking into for expansion of the compiler magic issues.

I have a near reflexive revulsion for the kinds of non-composability and destruction of principled, theoretically sound language design that tends to come from compiler magic and shortcuts, so always looking for more reading to enrage myself.