I found XSLT kind of mind-bending, but also extremely satisfying and quite productive. Like SQL, it’s declarative, so you have to get into the mindset of telling the computer what you want, not what to do.

Oh Lord. You’ve just triggered a horrific memory of how in my first job we used XSLT to convert xml files of job applications into sql that was then executed to import them into the db. That truly was mind bending.

You may be a smarter person than me, but I couldn't handle it and quite possibly that was partly related to its truly appalling XML-based syntax. I'd like to point out that no other language I'm aware of is so syntacticallyvile that they have to add a new mechanism just to pass parameters around – parameter tunnelling.

https://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/#tunnel-params

XSLT is a functional language. I say writing DTD and stuff like that is harder than XSLT. XSLT is actually pretty fun to write.

If I have a reason to I will. Im generally not motivated to learn things to pad my ego, I need a more tangible reason.