TBH that was the spirit of my question. I was wondering if there was something special about Lua (the language), and it seems like the answer is a resounding "no".
I'm not sure I could call that "resounding" - for one a PyPy dev disagreed with him in a sibling thread.
> Yes, you can go a long way without extra APIs etc, but sometimes there is info that's available, that's simply not there, because it's only in a programmers head.
So basically, I should donate to pypy...