In reply to Steve Grant.

I was one of those commercial developers, launching my first business in 2008. Of course, my fulltime job is now at WP Tavern. However, over the years, I have had many clients and users (not all) who would have loved for the ability to directly edit templates and the like.

It all really depends on who you are creating products or solutions for. Let's not split this discussion between academics and real-world developers. The experience of the latter is not homogenous.

What is important is discussing what tools/features/etc. that would help you and those doing the specific work you're doing, opening tickets for those things, and trying to get them into core.