Multiple people have sought to rewrite coreutils, whether it be for fun, exercise, or out of frustration with the current utils. I know folk on 4chan's /g/ were rewriting them once, and the people at suckless are trying to do the same, only with a lot of options and features stripped out due to "bloat" (my word not theirs).
Your second question presumes that just because something is old means it is the best. Traditional things can indeed work out well, but challenging tradition is how progress is made. And you can't know if the coreutils can be improved if you don't try, right?
Your second question presumes that just because something is old means it is the best. Traditional things can indeed work out well, but challenging tradition is how progress is made. And you can't know if the coreutils can be improved if you don't try, right?