And where you need a reasonably performant relational data store, all those cumbersome gymnastics might be worth it. But if you're working with a modest datase

And where you need a reasonably performant relational data store, all those cumbersome gymnastics might be worth it. But if you're working with a modest dataset where volume and performance aren't a primary concern, working straight in text is infinitely more convenient. There's a reason people do so much bulk data processing in CSV, JSON, or other easily manipulated formats.