[joshuak]

It is also common trope that people say "but consider the typical user." I think both arguments are valid. At differing points in user skill level.

For example I would not expect a "typical user" to know or want to use a terminal to navigate directories, however as a more experienced user I know one can navigate much more quickly using a terminal than using the hunt and peck style of most file system GUIs.

Some things are useful before they can be made easy. Some things are easy that have more uses with more effort.

[zozbot234]

A good TUI-based file manager is way quicker than typical GUI's while still preserving much of the same intuition. Whether it's also quicker than the CLI depends on your use case; in some cases it can be.

[joshuak]

Even GUI's can be as fast or faster then terminal if it's not oriented around visually searching and selecting each step in the path.

[Koshkin]

Indeed, TUI and GUI are not mutually exclusive to begin with.