To me it feels like someone could rethink the unix tools in the way you're talking about, and maybe it could become a successful and widely-adopted project. Because a suite of tools like this could live alongside the old unix stuff.
The main challenge to doing this well is having good taste and experience. It may be that if you really tried to do this, you'd face tons of UX challenges, and you'd find that tools like awk really were in the sweet spot already.
The main challenge to doing this well is having good taste and experience. It may be that if you really tried to do this, you'd face tons of UX challenges, and you'd find that tools like awk really were in the sweet spot already.