No contraversial at all. And without sounding like I'm flogging a dead horse, since I've mentioned it elsewhere, but you're after Nushell. Everything is data, structured data. And of interest to a sibling comment it's syntax is similar to SQL, with things like where and select.
Edit: in relation to the other sibling comment, Nushell was developed as an improvement over powershell. I use both and prefer nushell's syntax.
I did hear an opinion (somewhere else) that a shell shouldn't have associative arrays either and it was a mistake...
> Nushell
Nushell is a candidate and some people use it and like it. I personally disagree with the design. Then again, I'm not objective. I created Next Generation Shell. It's a fully fledged programming language with domain specific facilities (for running external programs for example). I like this approach more than trying to improve over a shell. It fits my brain better.
I think it's about alignment of the project and how you think.
If it won't be it this time, I'm working on the user interface of Next Generation Shell now and I would like to encourage you to revisit the project once that is done.
Tldr: interactive objects on the screen, each interaction results "interaction record" (structured data about what happened), semantic understanding of what's happening, record/replay facility.
Edit: in relation to the other sibling comment, Nushell was developed as an improvement over powershell. I use both and prefer nushell's syntax.