> But I'm not ready to give up on the idea that Python comes with batteries included. We should not let those batteries corrode and leak.

I totally agree with you.  And it would be great if cmd2 could be incorporated into the std lib as an updated cmd.  cmd seems to be largely abandoned in the std lib: looking at the commit history for it shows few changes in the past decade or so and I'm not aware that any current core developer feels ownership of it: I might be wrong.  But it certainly is true that cmd2 has seen much more activity recently than cmd has.  So I would think that the ideal solution would be for the cmd2 project to take ownership of cmd in the std library.  OTOH, it seems like we haven't always had good long-term results in the past when trying to bring existing third-party packages into the std lib.  But it could be worth trying again, if someone were willing to shepherd it.