If the arg_parts are passed through the same cleanup as the 'text' (and empty strings removed), then 

    text = ' '.join(arg_parts)

In that case there would be no need to return both (text, arg_parts).

Parenthesis in the metavar could also create the problem addressed in this thread, except as noted in http://bugs.python.org/issue18349 that 'text' cleanup removes them.

nargs='*' or '+' or integer is another way in which [] could be introduced into the metavar.