Is there even a meaningful definition of 'powerful'? I guess C# 4 is strictly more powerful than C# 2 since it only adds features, but how to compare the power of Haskell versus Rust? They are designed for different domains.
There is for each problem domain, spreadsheets for example are a great tool for a tiny set of problems. Lisp was incredibly well suited to solving ViaWeb's problems. The landscape changed and continues to evolve, but I can't use 2050's programming languages. So, picking the best language for each project based on when your starting it really is an important choice.
Also of note, Lisp was an old language in the mid 90's so the compiler was a non issue.
