Is a command line the best way to use a computer?

For many years I have been an advocate of the power of a command line interface over the ease of use of a graphical interface. I think that this is especially true for file management tasks. I'd rather type "rm *" than to have to draw a box around a window full of icons and then drag them to a trashcan. I'd far rather type "rm *~" than to have to search through a window with 100 icons in it looking for the ones whose names end with "~" to drag them individually to the trash. Richard Wareham even thinks that a command line is the best way to introduce new computer users.

But on the other hand, nobody that I know of uses a command line interface for what is probably the most common task there is: Editing text. Over the years I have used many different text editors. A partial list would include WordStar, WordPerfect, Brief, Notepad, Word, Emacs, MS DevStudio, OpenOffice, Delphi's IDE, and recently Vim.

What is it that all of these editors have in common? Well, they all show you what you're working on. They all let you manipulate it, with more or less direct actions. They're visual, with lots of visual feedback. A command line editor like Ed will generally show you a few lines around the line you're working on, and that only if you ask it to. It will accept commands, and show you only the immediate result of the action, not the full context.

Nobody uses a command line to edit text, why do we keep using one to edit our filesystem? I'm not entirely sure.