To me the CLI is about fine. It's just the submodules that are poorly executed and break all sorts of expectations. The mini-primer on submodule-WTFs: "must be

To me the CLI is about fine. It's just the submodules that are poorly executed and break all sorts of expectations. The mini-primer on submodule-WTFs: "must be executed in root-directory", no auto-clone/update of submodules, incomplete info about submodules in status-commands, manual maintenance of .gitmodules, a wide range of irritating/misleading failure modes and error messages... It's really no surprise you hardly ever see a submodule on e.g. github, even on projects where it would make sense. The maintenance headache usually dwarves all potential benefits.