It's not a "crutch", it's an "alternative". Couching it in negative terms isn't really fair. While I prefer writing regexes, a regex DSL isn't fundamentally be

It's not a "crutch", it's an "alternative". Couching it in negative terms isn't really fair. While I prefer writing regexes, a regex DSL isn't fundamentally better or worse, just different. In addition, it allows non-computer people to write, or at least specify, regexes in a way that makes more sense to non-developers.