It doesn't seem too bad, hackwise, though I think it might have issues with layering new definitions on top of old ones if there isn't a way to remove them from the list.
What code would having that improved reader break?
Any code that relied on the ability to represent the symbol whose name is "foo.bar" (or any symbol containing a dot) as 'foo.bar rather than needing to wrap it in pipes as '|foo.bar|.
