This is drifting well away from the original point. Here is the OP's
original comment, and my response:
I am an Obj-C/Cocoa developer, among other tools and languages, and
continue to be amazed at how painful AppleScripting is...
Actually, Has, you're missing the point here, rather spectacularly. One more experience/programmer/shell scripter/unix expert complaining about the appleScript language/implementation/tools wouldn't have generated this much response. Been there, done that.
What you seem to have missed (in the middle of this incredibly detailed rant about why no one listens to us poor appleScripters) was that Apple has sent yet another Chris into the breach and this one is actually asking AppleScripters for feedback on the language and Technology and, presumably, ready to listen to us.
Of course your first response was to tell him not to ask us, but to go to you for advice on how to solve appleScript's problems.
Is it just me, or do all your solutions have something to do with making appleScript no longer appleScript and losting all these non-technical users who don't know anybetter?
Here's a bit more feedback from an AppleScript user...
I would like some kind of system notification. Something I could monitor with an appleScript that would tell me if an application has quit or if an applet has crashed. It should send an event indicating that an application has launched or quit (expectedly).
Also, people in the past have complained about not having trig functions.