Given that human ability to think with abstractions is likely connected to our ability to use language, I don't see why textual representation would be the fund

Given that human ability to think with abstractions is likely connected to our ability to use language, I don't see why textual representation would be the fundamental problem in programming. There are subproblems (e.g. state machines) in our craft that benefit enormously from different kind of (visual) representations, but in my opinion textual representations is the best basis for programming. On the otherhand, you might just hate text files as a way to organize code and would instead use a more elaborate format. Maybe there is better ways, but I think simpler formats fare better when you need to communicate with other people and over organizational boundaries.