> Then you sort at the point you can see the numbers and discard them later

This sort of human overhead is only needed to compensate for the deficiencies of the data structures

> ls can already sort by size

That's the benefit of integration you're arguing against with your deficient piping suggestions

> IOW, structured data is not a cure for laziness...

It is precisely what good design is for - it reduces the need for various dumb workarounds that bad design requires, which means you can be more lazy and avoid said workaround

> Yes, because their authors are not that lazy.

This just ignores the argument, which was "some better new tools don't do that" isn't relevant when some better new tools also do that