Though it’s natural (and reasonable) for developers to focus on the technical differences, there’s more to it. All software operates as part of a complex system that includes humans, culture, practises etc. The technical differences are variously significant (JVM vs BEAM) or trivial (syntax), but culture & context also matters.
My view (based on clojure and elixir being my ‘hobby languages’ for 2020 and 2021 respectively) is that they operate differently in the sociocultural sense. Clojure emphasises self-assembly of solution styles from orthogonal and self-chosen libraries; Elixir ergonomics and community-wide architectural styles. So for a beginner (to the language/platform, not to development) Clojure’s expectation is that your scaffolding comes from your immediate team. Elixir provides that scaffolding in its standard libraries & tooling.
Personally, as a lone hobbyist with both platforms, I enjoyed both in different ways. Clojure appealed to me more initially (wonderful REPL, the JVM because of familiarity, LISP syntax, and the core collection types & libraries); but over time I’ve managed to actually produce much more with Elixir. I’m pretty sure I would have been as productive in Clojure if I was working within an established team (though a team new to Clojure would have been in the same position as me).
