(1) Yes this has occurred to me as well. I think it's pretty much just convenience. Though languages like Kernel and even Common Lisp (with constant need to quote or function-quote) reduce that inconvenience anyway.
Even if you choose to quote names in definers, you still need some irregularity in evaluation policies to build short-circuiting or/and.
(2) Arc is built on racket, and strings in racket (and other schemes?) are interned and so fast to compare just by their address. Lisp choose not to intern strings.