[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

Unfortunately I have to agree. Current efforts are constrained by the desire to integrate with existing tooling and the text-parser-based approach of the unix interfaces in general (in particular sysfs and procfs on Linux).

I honestly think someone should do this "from scratch", as you say. I believe the effort would be worth it, but I doubt that the unix community would be amenable to the idea as it goes against their deeply held cultural traditions.