This was a great read. My favorite part was the section about rarely used language features, as I have had a similar experience. It makes you wonder if you're inexperienced or doing something wrong, when in fact those features may just not be needed most of the time.
Having talked to a bunch of very experienced LISPers recently (including Richard Gabriel) about this very topic, it appears to be the case that most people go wild with macros for a little while, but this passes and then you write fairly straightforward code.
I've written CL macros. I've noticed that for me, the probability of long-term use seems proportional to the size of a macro's implementation. The more work a macro does, the less likely I'm to revert to "straightforward code".
There is no single answer for that. Some code from experienced Lisp developers uses a lot of macros. Others don't like that style. It also depends on what you are writing.
