>the reason it exploded in complexity is because the pieces were too simple

the reason it exploded in complexity is because the complexity is in the interaction of the parts, not the properties of the parts. It's not so much about expressiveness but about the fact that the Unix philosophy has a willful disregard for systems thinking.

Russ Ackhoff has the analogy of the house. How do you design rooms in a house? Only ever with the house in mind. You can't just hope the rooms work, you always need to check whether a new room improves the house, if somethings wrong you fix the room, not the house.

Unix tools have a disregard for the house. Clojure works well because every part of Clojure is designed not just to improve itself but to improve Clojure. Emacs is similar in that regard, you can see that when people make Emacs packages. The good ones always have Emacs in mind, not just their own functionality.