I get what you're saying but I think it depends on what sort of file manipulation you need. When I'm trying to get a large set of images renamed from e.g. IMG_N

I get what you're saying but I think it depends on what sort of file manipulation you need. When I'm trying to get a large set of images renamed from e.g. IMG_NNNNNN.jpg format into sequential zero-padded numerals for use with ffmpeg I personally appreciate the option to do it with a bash one-liner rather than using the mouse in a GUI.