I never gave up on #nix, so I might not be qualified to answer this. But I found the language excellent. It's a special purpose language, and it does what it is supposed to be doing very well. I saw people trying to compare it with python and such which, IMO it's a poor comparison. It's just lambda calculus, and the way it handles the paths and derivation is brilliant. I think people tend to complain before gaining a full understanding of the language. 

I consider myself a Lisper, but I have to say, Nix is better suited for this than scheme.