zsh is really powerful and flexible, but it does so by being really, really complicated --- it's basically taking bash and turning all the weirdness and bizarity up to 11. It's an uber-bash, which is very much the opposite of what I'm looking for.
> it's basically taking bash and turning all the weirdness and bizarity up to 11
While I certainly understand where you are coming from, I have found that zsh may be more complicated, but less "weird" (i.e. it is more consistent)
However, zsh is tons of tons of special cases that may be mostly consistent, but without any clear concept which would allow you to remember or deduce solutions. When you are a zsh wizard you can be really productive, but it is a strange skillset that takes time to achieve and require constant refresh.
IMHO the closest thing zsh has to a "concept" is that if it takes too many characters, then there's probably a special case which - if you knew it - could solve the problem in a shorter form.
