As a concrete example of what you're talking about, all of these plain-text accounting solutions are difficult/impossible to sort the transactions in because their plain-text-ness gives so much freedom.
Then, because transactions aren't sorted, it becomes easier to load up some kind of UI (CLI or GUI) to browse things by-date or by-account or whatever. To say nothing of charting & reporting...
And at that point...the usefulness of plain-text-ness seems quite diminished. It becomes more like a data-entry format than anything else.
That said, I continue to use a plain-text accounting system because the alternatives aren't really any better at this point and often come with their own issues.
Then, because transactions aren't sorted, it becomes easier to load up some kind of UI (CLI or GUI) to browse things by-date or by-account or whatever. To say nothing of charting & reporting...
And at that point...the usefulness of plain-text-ness seems quite diminished. It becomes more like a data-entry format than anything else.
That said, I continue to use a plain-text accounting system because the alternatives aren't really any better at this point and often come with their own issues.