But they all have marginal support for using the Cocoa libraries and Interface builder to build real OS X apps. This is sad, b/c I remember when the NeXT machine came out, you could program real applications in Allegro Common Lisp and use all the AppKit libraries, etc.

Anyone know when this is going to be rectified...?

It is gradually being rectified now.

The CAPI interface in Lispworks makes perfectly good Aqua applications, if a bit Carbon-flavored.

There is a serviceable interface to the Cocoa frameworks and Objective C runtime in OpenMCL 0.13 and 0.14 (though it is somewhat challenging to get a proper application built). You can make the process a little easier by getting Bosco from my website and by talking to me about how to use it (http://evins.net).

Gary Byers and Randall Beer are about to release an improved, more CLOS-flavored version of their interfaces; Bosco and its derivatives will of course adopt the new interface.

Brian Mastenbrook started a mailing list at common-lisp.net for folks who want to build a proper OSX/Cocoa IDE for Lisp, and I subsequently created the Clotho project, also at common-lisp.net, so that folks could help work on my embryonic IDE, based on Bosco. Plans include a Lisp interface to nibfiles.

Meanwhile, Duncan Rose and I are trying to get a Cocoa version of McCLIM working.

Meanwhile, Thomas Burdick as working on a Cocoa bridge for SBCL.

So it's possible, though still somewhat difficult, to build Cocoa apps in at least one free Lisp today, and there is considerable effort underway to make it easier.