I see the point of the OP and agree it would look better to have a way to do it without nesting. However, there are many situations where we have to do the same kind of thing with other commands (such as $gettok). I really don't see changing all of those to make them work without nesting. It just doesn't seem worth it to me and I don't think it would be any more efficient... it would just be a cosmetic thing.
