Indeed, the GUI is not designed for me. I resent being forced to use it against my will. And therein lies my deep-seated dislike for Apple, whose products forced me to use a GUI without any alternative in order to make a living for several years.

I don't care for Stephenson's fiction and was unaware of his dissertation on operating systems. I found part of it on the web and you are correct in guessing that I would agree with him, though it seems pretty dated now and needs to be brought up to date on a decade more of developments. Many of those developments are bad, in my opinion, not necessarily because of what they are but because of the effect they have on users.