I agree with the thrust of your argument as I was learning Common Lisp around then but you make a factual mistake:
> Around 2004... There were two free, open source Lisps available (CMUCL, CLISP) and both were rather unloved and clunky at best.
SBCL and ECL existed and were quite usable.
The documentation was as you say, another story. There was the HyperSpec, copies of CLtL, and a number of out-of-print or hard to find books that described some kind of Lisp. It was hard to be a tyro without a guide.
> Around 2004... There were two free, open source Lisps available (CMUCL, CLISP) and both were rather unloved and clunky at best.
SBCL and ECL existed and were quite usable.
The documentation was as you say, another story. There was the HyperSpec, copies of CLtL, and a number of out-of-print or hard to find books that described some kind of Lisp. It was hard to be a tyro without a guide.