I can maybe chime in since I’ve used both. Basic operations like if statements, arithmetic and loops are a lot closer to what you’d expect on PS. The barrier to programming in bash vs PS is IMO a bit higher because bash heavily uses symbols for everything. This does make PS way more verbose but more easy to wrap your head around it when unfamiliar with the syntax.

I prefer bash but for anything bigger than 5 lines I prefer proper scripting language like python or js and making an alias for “node path/to/js/script.js” and using execSync(“program param1 param2”) to run shell commands.

Long story short, I prefer bash because it’s built in and I know it better than PS, I expect PS guys to feel the same way.

Its a completely different shell, not just another terminal emulator.

Its more readable, and its syntax is less arcane than bash.

For example, a script to get the first line of a file and its lenght in bash is:

#!/bin/bash


if [ "$#" -ne 1 ]; then
    echo "Usage: $0 filename"
    exit 1
fi

filename="$1"


if [ ! -r "$filename" ]; then
    echo "File '$filename' does not exist or is not readable."
    exit 1
fi


read -r first_line < "$filename"


echo "First line: $first_line"


length=${#first_line}

echo "Length of first line: $length"

There is so much I hate about this, like using a semicolon after the if condition, and ending it in fi.

Versus the powershell version:

param (
    [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
    [string]$FilePath
)


if (-not (Test-Path -Path $FilePath)) {
    Write-Error "File '$FilePath' does not exist."
    exit 1
}

try {
    
    $firstLine = Get-Content -Path $FilePath -TotalCount 1
}
catch {
    Write-Error "Could not read from file '$FilePath'."
    exit 1
}


Write-Output "First line: $firstLine"


$lineLength = $firstLine.Length
Write-Output "Length of first line: $lineLength"

It feels more modern.