Current Lisps are so dissimilar to the first Lisps that they're hardly the same language anymore. Really, the Lisps form a family of languages. If you can argue that Clojure is just a "better" Lisp, you could just as easily argue that Go (or C#, or Java, or whathaveyou) is just a "better" Algol.

Sure that modern lisps are not that similar with original McCarthy lisp. It's where that "gets better over time" kicks in.

Well, now you have to define better. What makes one programming language better than another? For some people, a better is a more elegant mathematical model. For others, better is popularity. Still others favor raw performance, portability, or ease of learning.

Someone who absolutely loves parentheses and capital letters would probably favor LISP 1.5 over Clojure.