Goodness, the lack of any compiler at all would disqualify a lot of cutting-edge academic research on programming languages, much less the existence of a publically-available compiler. Often all you get is a diagram full of (basically) inscrutable derivation rules.

And rightfully so. In spite of all of the theory going into those languages, the one thing they're all missing is practice.

Yes, but now you've shifted the goalposts, because I think most people would generally consider PL researchers to have an understanding of programming language design.

Well, that's fine, then. Many of them do eventually create something useful later.

Johnathan Blow is a game designer, though.

You can be more than one single thing. Johnathan Blow is a game designer, a game programmer, an entrepreneur, a programming language designer, etc.

At the end of the day he's someone who do write software for a living since decades, and has strong opinions and expectations. And he's using this to create the tools he wants to have.

I'm also not a fan of closed-source compilers (or fully closed, even worse), but it's unfair to disregard his work and opinions just because it's not publicly available.

Regardless of that, this is not a discussion about compilers or compiler design/programming, but rather about PL design, which are two different areas and disciplines.

I'd even take a closed-source compiler.

The problem is that, ultimately, he's effectively throwing rocks from a glass house, but he denies us the rocks to throw back.

I just can't take him seriously.

It's currently in private beta as far as I remember from his Twitter timeline.

Can you think of a less snarky way of saying that he hasn't released it publicly yet?

They are currently closed beta testing the compiler, but it isn’t an abstract or imaginary thing.. he works with it all the time on his livestreams on Twitch.

He has a beta program for those interested in trying out the compiler.

Are you implying that it doesn't exist? It clearly does.