Programming languages aren't just tools like hammers, they're sometimes also tools like railroads and AC mains power supplies. There you will be in a world of hurt if you want to pick different rail distances and voltages for each project.
In programming, if you lose in the popularity politics badly enough, your tool will die. Just ask the Dolphin SmallTalk or Lisp Machine programmers.
There are plenty of happy Lisp programmers and healthy tools for them around today. A rapidly increasing number, even, thanks to the likes of Clojure and maturing free CL implementations and ecosystems.
In programming, if you lose in the popularity politics badly enough, your tool will die. Just ask the Dolphin SmallTalk or Lisp Machine programmers.