I would argue that people want a more traditional app instead, with what I'm sure you'd consider a bloated and inefficient GUI. Considering that most people don't even know what a terminal even is, and that form regularly trumps functionality in day-to-day lives.
I don't think the parent comment was speaking for anyone but themselves. They expressed a preference, it was rejected as opposed to "progress". The comment about progress being giving people what they want was a refutation of that - like, "it can't be progress for me if it's not what I want." The fact that other people may want what they've been given is great - for them, progress! but it's also irrelevant to the point being picked at.
Perhaps I'm being overly charitable to the original commenter.
I would argue that people want a more traditional app instead, with what I'm sure you'd consider a bloated and inefficient GUI. Considering that most people don't even know what a terminal even is, and that form regularly trumps functionality in day-to-day lives.