I think lost of folks don't think about a GUI having good keyboard support. I recall wowing a Windows admin in the late 90s by using the keyboard to navigate a mouseless Windows 'server.'
macOS seems to have eschewed good keyboard support for operating the GUI -- Steve Jobs insisted on a single button mouse because two buttons were two complicated; I could assume he would have disliked the idea of operating without point-and-click by only using the 100+ keys on a keyboard. I've witnessed many 'admins' in IT departments all to happy to point and click around their Windows AD admin interfaces without ever even thinking to ask if something faster is available.
My point here is that, anecdotally, the keyboard users and the mouse users apparently don't overlap much. This leads to keyboard users just wanting "CLI everywhere!" without consideration for a GUI with good keyboard support. I think you make an excellent point (that honestly didn't occur to me): If the problem is that clicking is too cumbersome, then add better keyboard support. It's an open source code base - we can certainly bring ourselves to bear on scratching this itch.
macOS seems to have eschewed good keyboard support for operating the GUI -- Steve Jobs insisted on a single button mouse because two buttons were two complicated; I could assume he would have disliked the idea of operating without point-and-click by only using the 100+ keys on a keyboard. I've witnessed many 'admins' in IT departments all to happy to point and click around their Windows AD admin interfaces without ever even thinking to ask if something faster is available.
My point here is that, anecdotally, the keyboard users and the mouse users apparently don't overlap much. This leads to keyboard users just wanting "CLI everywhere!" without consideration for a GUI with good keyboard support. I think you make an excellent point (that honestly didn't occur to me): If the problem is that clicking is too cumbersome, then add better keyboard support. It's an open source code base - we can certainly bring ourselves to bear on scratching this itch.