[TeMPOraL]

If we're considering Node-Red, it would not be amiss to also mention N8N - which, mirroring the IFTTT/Zapier split, is basically the opposite of Node-Red on the "let's turn this into an enterprise product" scale.

> Do we really not having anything coming close to the usefulness of Yahoo Pipes yet?

I don't know of anything. There's some new products I saw heavily promoted on LinkedIn, but at first glance they feel like IFTTT with a shiny coat of paint.

> What would a modern alternative look like and how would it work?

At this point I think ComfyUI or the node editor in Blender would be the best; they're oriented for different kinds of workflows, but UIs of both are excellent in their own ways, and the rest is a matter of implementing the right blocks.