You didn’t need to defend your reasons for wanting automation to be simplified. I think you’re absolutely right about these softwares making automation more accessible to those less able to script something themselves. In fact, I may be very comfortable coding something that I know I don’t need to rely on a third party option for, but sometimes, I just want the easier option and if it’s already running in the background, Keyboard Maestro was usually very good at saving me the ball ache of having to think.
Without wanting to sound rude, I think that might have been the case. But I also don’t think that’s your fault. I initially had reservations when I demoed KM. I found its interface dated, and building macros to be not as intuitive as they could have been. I decided against it. Then when a friend gave me a fully licensed copy he no longer needed (his Mac became a Windows PC), I got more familiar with the program and how powerful it is.
I still hate its user interface, and I don’t retract what I said about its unintuitive macro editor. In this respect, Hazel is a standout winner for how slick it feels. However, Hazel has one purpose and it does it easier than a Folder Action, but it’s completely redundant if KM is installed, as KM can create watched folders and run complex rules more so than Hazel.
KM, despite your heretic claim to not have system triggers, actually has in insane number and variety of system triggers: keyboard hotkeys, wifi state changes, watched folders, cron, pixel detection, application changes, window changes, Bluetooth devices, usb devices, typed character sequences, and stuff I can’t remember. It then has a lot of actions that can manipulate text, images, system hardware, menus, etc. Macros can rewrite themselves, and be triggered via a URI scheme, or remote URL over the Internet. Plus, there’s a direct line of communication with the developer, which is so rare.
Don’t judge yourself based on Automator making simplifying a task quite complicated. I tend to avoid it. Not to harp on, but if I have KM installed (I don’t currently), it lets me severe my ties completely with Automator, as system services, folder actions, calendar alarms, and anything else Automator thinks it does can be done better in KM. But, I’m currently not installing any third party software outwith the bare minimum, and seeing what it gives back versus what it takes to operate like this. But, prior to all of this, all of my folder actions were only ever implemented through AppleScript, without using Automator. It’s more versatile, and you can write a script that connects a watched folder to an Applescript which saves right clicking through the Finder to set it up. I hate right clicking.
That’s because everyone always goes on about bash. Pfft. Use FiSH. It’s easy to learn, and more powerful in the ways that are important.