@glitch I think my requirements are subtle. I'd like a self contained tool, that does not compile to a binary for one off cli tools. If I come back to it a year later, I don't want to have to search for where the source code is.
I would like all of the features I mentioned, flags, file handling, input validation, to be part of the standard Library so if I share my script there will not need to be additional libraries installed.
#Perl feels like the closest to this requirement that I've seen.