[cwalv]

I sympathize with both points of view. I think of autotools as an extreme example of how less general tools tend to grow in complexity to the point that the effort to learn them outweighs the benefit you get from knowing them well. But there is something missing from the "just use python everywhere" argument as well. For many usecases, choosing a less expressive language can guard against excessive complexity creeping in at that layer. IMO, json+jq fills a useful niche between semistructured/unstructured-text+awk/sed/bash and APIs+some-gp-scripting-language