>I can't imagine anyone has ever tried to do engineering at scale (people wise) and did not find the value in static typing.
>why so few large projects have been written in a LISP or LISP descendant
The major dialect of Lisp, Common Lisp, is strongly typed, and many large projects have been written in it, for CAD/CAM, controlling a NASA spaceship, complete operating systems (Open Genera), the Mirai 3D graphics suite used for creating Gollum in "the lord of the rings", etc.
>why so few large projects have been written in a LISP or LISP descendant
The major dialect of Lisp, Common Lisp, is strongly typed, and many large projects have been written in it, for CAD/CAM, controlling a NASA spaceship, complete operating systems (Open Genera), the Mirai 3D graphics suite used for creating Gollum in "the lord of the rings", etc.