[justanotherc]

I agree. The shell, just like all other programming languages, allows you to trade the time spent learning a domain specific skill for an easier method of doing things.

Using the batch operations example -- if you know shell scripting, you can save yourself time doing things manually -- but you need to have already traded in the time to learn Shell scripting.

GUIs allow you to reduce time spent learning a domain specific skill at the expense of overall efficiency.