Unitask tools of the Alton Brown stripe are leaf nodes, not pipe nodes. They're roach motels, not highways. You check in, you don't check out. Design is typically monolithic, not atomic.
The Unix philosophy is for small, atomic, pipeable utilities that do a single task (more properly, subtask) in conjunction with other tools.
There are exceptions. including, say, web browsers. But where a browser is one level of monolithic app, it's generalized to that particular information purpose. A site-dedicated application is worlds worse.
No, he's articulating the Unix philosophy: tools should do one thing (knives are for cutting), and their user should be able to use that one thing for many different purposes, in conjunction with other tools.
The Unix philosophy is for small, atomic, pipeable utilities that do a single task (more properly, subtask) in conjunction with other tools.
There are exceptions. including, say, web browsers. But where a browser is one level of monolithic app, it's generalized to that particular information purpose. A site-dedicated application is worlds worse.