if someone wanted to draw an image they would still have to learn opengl though right?
Depends really. It could interface with the Blitz3D SDK or any other libraries I expect. It seems we'd all like something as fast as C++ with all the power it gives us, but without the complexity of the language.
To some extent it makes sense to have a 'inbetween' compiler to hide the complexity, while letting the back end c++ compiler take care of the optimisation.
As I said, it a fun side project at the moment :)