I’ll agree the emacs on ramp is widely regarded as a barrier to entry on CL. I’ve heard good things about the Alive plug-in for vs code though. Also stuff like emacs4cl and portacle in theory make it easier, but I don’t disagree.
With that said, using an editor built on a lisp to work on lisp as its advantages if you can get over that initial hurdle.
Git and symbolic links still.
Ive heard good things about GNU Stow.