! A screenshot of a Linux terminal showing some packages being installed. One of the package is named "fribidi". This name rhymes with something that evokes visceral horrors beyond comprehension.
An image of a Vietnam war soldier having flashbacks is superimposed !<
None of what you say is a problem, really. For tar you tell it to create a few archive, gzip it, you want verbose (more) output on the command line, and then with -f you tell it the file name, and then you add what to throw in there. Sorry, it's about as simple as it gets.
I'm much more irked by -r or -R to recurse, depending on the command, or every command doing -letter or --word, but find does -word
Each one their own peeves. :-)
Also: I very much agree with your irks.