I usually resort to running inline scripts using python3 or node (using only the standard library) if I need to do something that I can't express in bash easily. That means avoiding stuff that have to look up and I won't remember or be able to debug in a month.
I like the idea of running inline scripts. This means that all the logic is in a single file so you don't have multiple files to copy around (e.g. a .sh file and a .py file).
I've done this with awk and jq, but haven't done it with node or python. But why not? It sounds like a good approach for some cases.
