I've always felt it was this kind of thinking that puts Emacs at odds with the UNIX philosophy of do one thing well. Unless your one thing is everything-you-can-do-with-text.
Some projects are like that, because the synergy from a core functionality works well with added features. Its like how a window manager has menus and keyboard shortcuts even if its main purpose is to draw windows, or session managers are normally full working desktops.
Emacs do exactly one thing well (editing text), and a bunch of other things sort of OK. The sort of OK stuff is there because their core, they are about editing text. Like with an IDE, if the editing is crap, the ide is crap. As such, all IDE's require a good text editor to start with before they can do anything well.
Emacs is a conscious computer virus with the aim of hollowing Unix out function by function, eventually to overthrow it. It's like a vampire: a shadow of what made it beautiful in life (elisp vs the old lisp machines), sustained mostly by blood (of its new users) and its long-term goal of revenge.
Yes I think Emacs' philosophy is at odds with UNIX philosophy; I also think it's /superior to/ UNIX philosophy. It sounds like you take UNIX philosophy to be gospel, and deviation from that to be incorrect. I'm not trying now to convert you to Emacs' philosophy. Rather I think there are a lot of people who only know UNIX philosophy, when in fact there are alternatives.
emacs is entirely and wholy at odds with the UNIX philosophy, indeed. emacs is a Lisp Machine, running in a VM on unix. Read the Unix Hater Handbook for more info.
