I like TUIs for tasks where awareness of context helps guide or inform a sequence of actions. A text editor is the classic example. File managers are also helpful for those of us who tend to lose our place when navigating around the filesystem.

I'm currently working on yet another redesign of my TUI frontend for mpg123, which I use for interactive transformations of a playlist while it's being played. I find it useful to be able to see the whole playlist in order to rearrange, add, or delete songs to my liking.

But I agree, a TUI for a simple one-shot information request or action seems unnecessary. Mike Gancarz aptly called them "captive interfaces" in his book Linux and the Unix Philosophy, and I don't want to be held captive unless I've decided to be working in their context for a while.

So, like you, I go to commandline interface programs as my first choice. TUIs second, and GUIs as a last resort if nothing else is suitable.

(My project list includes plans to reimplement things like gpodder as TUIs. My mpg123 frontend is mostly a way to learn how to write such things. I've looked at the code for a lot of existing TUIs and it's amazing how many different approaches there are! I've learned from them how to hack out something that works but I'm still looking for the cleanest, most elegant design. In C, because I'm old-school. )