So I wrote production code for Smalltalk for seven years in multiple industries. I know for a fact some of it is still in production, in odd places like the core analytics code of JP Morgan, in several Insurance companies, and (believe or not) in the Analysts workbench at the CIA. It is definitely more than a hobbyist language.

However, the thing that I’m wondering about is your assertion that it required early returns — that’s definitely not true. Granted, that’s a common practice in a good deal of Smalltalk code (as it is in Java), but not required by any means.