Sorry, but my view of what is really "useful in today's world" is what the language has that makes it easy to get at, i.e., make use of, other software, e.g., TCP/IP, device drivers, operating system services, authentication services, APIs, something old written in Algol, Cobol, Folderol, Fortran, C/C++, etc.
Actually there is a theme that a language can be interpretive and, really, still fast enough if mostly it is used just as thin glue to connect other, efficient software where nearly all the time goes. E.g., IBM's in-house mainframes on their VNET were long run heavily with just their interpretive language Rexx: VNET was a little like the Internet except the network was less smart and the computers also played the role of routers. At one time IBM had 3600 such mainframes around the world. I've been using Rexx on Windows as a scripting language and want to convert to PowerShell due to the better access to Windows services.
Actually there is a theme that a language can be interpretive and, really, still fast enough if mostly it is used just as thin glue to connect other, efficient software where nearly all the time goes. E.g., IBM's in-house mainframes on their VNET were long run heavily with just their interpretive language Rexx: VNET was a little like the Internet except the network was less smart and the computers also played the role of routers. At one time IBM had 3600 such mainframes around the world. I've been using Rexx on Windows as a scripting language and want to convert to PowerShell due to the better access to Windows services.