But that's so weird!
Not really! In non-strict languages you typically have evaluation driven by need, whereas in strict languages you have evaluation driven by function application. But functions are already for abstraction, so they end up serving a sort of dual purpose; meanwhile ordinary values can't really be used for abstraction, except if you know you're going to use their value at least once. If you don't, you have to wrap your value in a function that doesn't take any arguments, or in certain type systems where that doesn't make sense as a concept, you have to use a function that takes a single, boring argument, that it then ignores. You then have to duplicate the work if you want to use it twice, or else write some sort of caching, probably using mutable variables. On top of all that, you decide that function application isn't even the only method of driving evaluation, because you also need if-statements, loops, and other control structures that you have to bake right into the fabric of your language.
