Ah, my apologies. I took your initial post to mean that even emacs doesn't get what you wanted. You mean largely that it is not the advertised path, even in emacs where it is technically possible. Makes sense.

The level of introspection you can do in emacs is something I wish all programs had. Being able to ask the program, "what were the last commands you saw?" and "what would you do if I did {something}" are huge.