Ah, here we go again. No, you don't need frameworks for a programming language to gain popularity.
I could use SQL and Emacs Lisp as examples (of languages doing fine with no frameworks). Still, you'd probably say something like: "I meant in the context of general-purpose languages".
Python has not become popular solely because of Django, or Java because of Spring, or Javascript due to Angular, or C# because of ASP.Net. Rails leading to broader adoption of Ruby is rather an aberration than normalcy.
What is a framework but the collection of prescriptive "recipes" that are not always so easily compatible with other frameworks?
There aren't many Clojure frameworks because the Clojure ecosystem itself is a framework with many interchangeable parts. Nothing is stopping you, for example, from incorporating both, Fulcro and Re-frame in the same app. Or using Integrant, Trapperkeeper, and Mount - all in one project. But have you ever tried using both, Angular and React in the same Javascript app? It's a glorious nightmare.
Everyone is biased; people who trained to write in Rails would want to see "a framework"; those who come from Racket perhaps would wish for a better macro system, those who like static-type systems may argue that Clojure needs one, some want better error messages, some proper tail-recursion, etc.
There's no tool, library, framework, or language with no deficiencies, and Clojure is not an exemption. It just goes to personal preference, and there are many, many programmers who absolutely love building things with Clojure. I think the language has passed the threshold of "critical mass", there's way too many people and companies invested heavily in it; it's not going away anytime soon. It may not expand rapidly and gain wide adoption and that's fine. It steadily, slowly keeps growing.
Yes, and that framework is called GNU Emacs. Emacs Lisp doesn't have "Rails-like" frameworks. Yes, Emacs has different distributions like Spacemacs and Doom, and perhaps someone may argue that those are precisely fit the term "framework", but then if we accept it's okay to get wishy-washy with the term, I can probably find you at least several Clojure libraries, each could be considered "a framework".
The framework for Emacs Lisp is a library to work with text, I/O, threads, buffers/windows/frames, textual UIs, graphic UIs, etc. See the entries in the Emacs Lisp reference manual:
