I would expect Clojure's standard library to be just as useful as Python. I did last years contest in Clojure and it was quite straightforward and fairly little code.
The way I understood the Clojure's standard library is that for many things (such as string manipulation) you have to fall back on Java libraries. And Java standard string libraries are AFAIK terrible compared to Python (again, no shame here).
That's certainly not true at all. Clojure has a rich string library where you can do all sorts of manipulation. Clojure's strings are also native data sequences so you can use the entire Clojure standard library's tools for manipulating data right on strings naturally.
I wrote full-time Clojure for two years, and did all of last year's Advent of Code in Clojure. In my entire life, I have never once written a line of Java and I have no idea the details of its standard library. That's how well-encapsulated Clojure is.
Clojure is much much more usable than CL.