Wouldn't any plotting library suffer from this challenge anyways? One would first make a relevant data transform and then send it to whatever plotting library.

Wouldn't any plotting library suffer from this challenge anyways? One would first make a relevant data transform and then send it to whatever plotting library. I suspect anything further would limit the flexibility of the plotting library. To make sure I have minimal pain with data transforms, I first store/transform data exactly like I would in a real transactional database. Beyond that it just becomes a matter a joins and filters/projections.