It's something different, let me see what benefits it has. The inverse is true as well. GUI folks have to understand that there are things that dont' make sense in a GUI, or are unwieldy. The proper tool shouldn't care if there's a mouse involved. Now, before folks get all neanderthal on me, take that in context.
Tools have to be taken in full gestalt mode.
That means clean underpinnings, clean API's, well documented interfaces, etc. Tools need to be able to report their problems in a meaningful way, be able to be configured and worked with in many fashions, without limiting users unreasonably. Going back to the original comments. Something like Klyx, which is an X front end on front of LaTeX - very very very powerful, very very very easy to use. Outlook is a fascinating program, and does some great stuff.