This is a complex issue. In fact, you can work with Pharo in a Unix-like manner. Use an external editor to modify the source code and run the image without any GUI. However, by doing so, you lose the most interesting and enriching aspects of it. The Pharo team has worked hard to integrate better with the world outside the Pharo image. People still complain that it is not like anything else they know, but if it were, they would miss the opportunity to learn how to do things differently and possibly better. There is also a lot of excellent documentation available, especially the MOOC, but it requires newcomers to invest some time.
That totally makes sense. I'm not saying there aren't advantages to what is being done, but what is being done does add a level of complexity to it all.
I think there is a valid reason for tools like Pharo to exist, I don't know the answer to how to improve the situation outside of a (selfish) desire to see better beginner documentation that talks about using it for people that have zero knowledge of Pharo and similar tools. Explain it like I'm 5 type stuff. I suspect it all becomes easier once the general primitives are explained but until they are there's an inscrutability to it.
