I usually do a clean local scope of the function anyway. The problem is the reloading. Revise.jl works sometimes, but sometimes doesn't, and it makes debugging more difficult (this is difficult enough in Julia as is in my experience). Another problem is having to use the REPL that doesn't integrate as nicely with the rest of the OS as shell.
I don't see why REPLing it is a more elegant solution. With that solution I can call the function form the REPL if I want, but also from the shell if I want. With shell I get the elegance of having a persistent, complete and reproducible description of the state all the time, which can be e.g. version controlled.