text streams are a wonderful idea in 2020 too. Exchanging opaque blobs (objects) requires a fit too fine. It is like Kalashnikov (not very precise but works everywhere) vs. some finicky contraption that is more efficient by some metric but it can only be used in a sterile environment without frustration(e.g. all software version must be just so for it to work satisfactory).
Or using an electronics analogy, text is wire and objects are connectors.
Sometimes all you need is to temporarily connect things together, the environment is benign, and your requirements are not demanding.
But Mouser.com shows over 2 000 000 entries (over 390 000 datasheets) in "Connectors". High current, high voltage, high frequency, environmental extremes, safety requirements, ...
There are all sorts of situations where crimping wires together won't do the job. Same with text. By the same token, there are all sorts of situations where text will do the job, but people are tempted to over-engineer things.
it is high cohesion vs. loose coupling (old concepts that are also as useful in 2020 as ever). If something is too inter-tangled, it probably should be inside the same program/system where you can guarantee a tight fit between components.
I have to say, having started using PowerShell recently, it's better. It's frustrating because I have decades of muscle memory in ksh and bash, but that's not enough to prevent me from recognizing that the CLR for loading components into the same process space and being able to work with and pass objects in that process space in your shell is clearly the right way forward.
