As an R user, I get what you mean. If you need to do things that don't fit well in the "tidyverse" model, you have three options:
1. Wrap the complicated bits in functions, then force it into the tidyverse model by abusing summarize and mutate.
2. Use data.table. It's very adaptable and handles arbitrary multiline expressions (returning a data.table if the last expression returns a list, otherwise returning the object as-is).
3. Use base R. It's not as bad as people make it out to be. You'll need to learn it to anyway, if you want to do anything beyond the basics.
1. Wrap the complicated bits in functions, then force it into the tidyverse model by abusing summarize and mutate.
2. Use data.table. It's very adaptable and handles arbitrary multiline expressions (returning a data.table if the last expression returns a list, otherwise returning the object as-is).
3. Use base R. It's not as bad as people make it out to be. You'll need to learn it to anyway, if you want to do anything beyond the basics.