> the UI design of a typical CLI is abysmal

The nice thing about a CLI is that even if you don't like the interface you're given, it's trivial to put an interface you do like in front of it. Much harder to do that with a point and click interface.

> Heck, it is even false for me as a software engineer.

Amen

Honestly, the gap from knowing which command line tool you probably need, to the command that does what you need... Prior to AI I have replicated probably a thousand command line capabilities in Ruby because I just couldn't be bothered.