[throwaway46281]

I agree with you. We can complain about Bash all we want, but Bash is everywhere and isn't going anywhere anytime soon (as much as I'd like something better). So if you want to be a good engineer in today's world, you have to learn it. And if the error message isn't immediately obvious to you yet, don't worry, it just means you haven't yet formed the right mental models. But you will, if you continue to educate yourself by reading articles like these!