R sucks as a language but it excels at that specific application, just because of its tremendous ecosystem (putting even python to shame in some niche areas).
R is fine, it's no more absurd than other non-typed languages like javascript. Most languages are very good at one or two things, then not so good or appropriate for other tasks. For R, that's statistics, modeling, and exploratory analysis, which it absolutely crushes at due to ecosystem effects.
Well… I also consider Javascript to be a horrible language. Python is horrible as well, but better than R. IMO python and javascript are in the same ballpark.
Not all non-typed languages are bad. Clojure, for example, is one if the most elegant languages I’ve worked with (despite my dislike of the JVM).
R sucks as a language but it excels at that specific application, just because of its tremendous ecosystem (putting even python to shame in some niche areas).