Here's a similar project I've been working on in my spare time: https://github.com/mslusarz/csv-nix-tools.
It supports both SQL syntax (SQLite and native) and Unix-like processing (grep, sort, uniq, etc).
It also includes source (ls, ps, etc) and exporting (exec, to-json, plot) tools.
Although you don't say it directly but by saying that "The open drivers (nouveau) were slow and far behind in features." and then that the situation improved because of Nvidia involvement you are not being honest.
Nvidia hasn't improved performance or contributed features to nouveau.
Their changes are limited to code that is mobile chip-specific and from time to time they contribute some reliability fix that affects non-mobile chips, but only if benefits mobile.
Since Maxwell 2 (9xx+) their chips are designed to be hostile to nouveau, by requiring firmware loaded by the driver to be signed by Nvidia (hardware refuses to load firmware that wasn't signed by them). It means that without Nvidia blessing nouveau for example can't change the fan speed (but still can change clocks! how ridiculous it is?).
Nvidia contibuted signed firmware loading for non-mobile chips (so called SecureBoot), but only because it's also required by mobile. And they still have not released enough firmwares for desktop cards to be usable...
E.g. removing all temporary files without the need to deal with spaces, glob limits, or silly find syntax:
csv-ls -R -c full_path . | csv-grep -c full_path -e '~$' | csv-exec -- rm -f %full_path