[No comment on the drama angle]

I wouldn't call Racket a 'tiny niche' language--its influence is much greater. It is a direct modern descendent of Lisp-1 languages.

I used it to do SiCP and learned a lot about what a language or program can do (as I imagine many others have as well).

While talking about Racket, worth mentioning HtDP(How to Design Programs) as well.