I think this depends a lot on how you define simplicity. If we define simplicity as: a plain text interchange format, then clearly by definition a text based s

I think this depends a lot on how you define simplicity. If we define simplicity as: a plain text interchange format, then clearly by definition a text based shell is simpler. Piping objects instead of text allows a single command to do more, as it can operate on any of the object's properties that it understands. From a user's perspective, I believe, that this is simpler - however I will acknowledge that this is somewhat subjective. For example: The command ls | sort LastWriteTime would print a list of files sorted by their LastWriteTime. The command ls | sort Length would print a list of files sorted by their size. Doing this in bash is more difficult as it requires additional commands to parse the output of ls.