Wow, this is the real deal. First time I've heard of this work and I've got some more digging to do. Has all the right language and some great references with pretty awesome related work on digital tools should anyone want to keep digging.

Low floor, high ceiling is the best case for that framework, and should be every toolmakers ideal.

The Airbnb story reads like a sign of the times. Platforms can do as they like, users just have to conform. PCs and the internet promised the kind of programmatic control described here(I wonder if there is a better term than "programmatic" control?), end users should be able to come up with arbitrary representations of the data they query on the fly and realize them as quickly as possible.

Web UIs are stupidly underpowered, table based queries for flights as presented here seem much more usable. Michel Beaudouin-Lafon has a few great ideas to explore here, "One is Not Enough" which he described in a different context but I think can apply to the desire for composability between multiple tools here (Airbnb + walkability) and "software is not soft" describing the boundaries placed on software users. I have many tools for manipulating strings or sorting numbers, why can't I use them on the Airbnb table listings, served up on my computer?

Thanks for sharing.