[nomel]

> the terminal provides a very fast feedback loop where I can iteratively examine the output of a command and refine the filters I apply

An IDE would be used to develop those commands, more than compose them.

> text to be the only format for exchanging information

For this to work, with non-text data, you end up using the file system as a buffer, then passing filepaths between commands. For many contexts, this isn't performant enough.