Also for the first ten years I used computers I was using all kinds of REPLs on computers that didn't have 1.7MB of RAM. On my first computer, which had one floppy drive and no hard drive, 1.7MB would have been 17 floppy disks, or 26 times the size of its RAM. So I'm kind of unconvinced by this stance that 1.7MB is a small REPL.

I mean, it's smaller than bash? But even your mom is smaller than bash.