Of course R isn't a complied language and probably not the same category as C/Rust as systems language but is not in the same category as VB. R is a serious scientific programming language used in non-trivial programs for industrial applications. See Posit's customers. I suggest John Chambers ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chambers_(statistician) ) book, he explain how he designed S language, R's grandfather so to speak, Software for Data Analysis ( https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-0-387-75936-4 ).
This isn't about compilation vs interpretation. R is simply badly designed as a programming language. This doesn't change just because its inventor wrote a book.
