It tries to standardize the auth, messaging, feedback loop where API can't do alone. A CLI app can do for sure but we are talking about a standard maybe the way is something like mcpcli that you can install your phone but still would you really prefer installing bunch of application to your personal device?
Some points that MCP is still not good as of today:
- It does not have a standard to manage context in a good way. You have to find your hack. The mostly accepted one search, add/rm tool. Another one is cataloging the tools.
- lack of client tooling to support elicitation on many clients (it really hurts productivity but this is not solved with cli too)
- lack of mcp-ui adoption (mcp-ui vs openai mcp app)
I would suggest keep building to help you and your users. I am not sponsor of MCP, just sharing my personal opinion. I am also creator HasCLI but kindly biased for MCP then CLI in terms of coverage and standardization.