Speaking of MIBs and management, was SNMP ever seriously
looked at back when desire for a control mechanism evolved?
If I recall, agent libs and clients weren't wished as middleware,
thus demurring to a text connection shell interface.
Though commercial routers have both, the shell connection is
usually richer and more capable, but harder to parse
(Juniper being more programmatic), and requires downstream
development to speak to each vendor's shell in automated fashion.