While I don't disagree with most of your points, NuShell's recent popularity seems to suggest that there is a demand for shells that operate on structured data

While I don't disagree with most of your points, NuShell's recent popularity seems to suggest that there is a demand for shells that operate on structured data – even in the Unix world. I dislike much of PowerShell's UX (syntax, tooling, etc.) but I love that aspect of it. I see from the blog post that you've decided that Oil will operate on strings instead – I'm really looking forward to the blog posts explaining that, I'm sure it's not a decision you took lightly.