That's true. It's far from being generally applicable. But it might be the most "mainstream" pipe-like processing notation around.

Nim has an interesting synthesis where a.f(b) is only another way to spell f(a, b), which (I think) matches the usual behavior of |> while still allowing familiar-looking method-style syntax. These are equivalent:

  [1, 2, 3].map(proc (n: int): int = n + 1).map(proc (n: int): string = $n).join(",").len
  
  len(join(map(map([1, 2, 3], proc (n: int): int = n + 1), proc (n: int): string = $n), ","))

The difference is purely cosmetic, but readability matters. It's easier to read from left to right than to have to jump around.