[forrestthewoods]

I don't disagree. But I have kind of the opposite take.

I can't count how many times I've seen simple code get turned into a hideously complex declarative language that has serious gaps.

Simple UI library code? Turn it into a custom declarative syntax that is now limited!

Simple build system that works and is debuggable? Turn it into a declarative syntax that can't be debugged and can't handle all the edge cases!

And so on and so forth.

I will admit that the idea of a font programming language sounds genuinely awful to me. So I don't really disagree with your premise. But I'm increasingly annoyed with declarative system when vanilla code is often simpler, more flexible, and more powerful (by necessity). :)