Consider it a challenge. No real reason you couldn't implement it as well, though AFAIR there's no internal shell mode in vim (you shell out).
You could probably make due with the python plugin, vim-conque, and ipython.
It's not really the vim way, though. Vim doesn't have web browsers, email client, and the like. Maybe the terribleness of vimscript is a blessing in disguise?
Fair point that. But it's got syntax highlighting for most of the content types you'd be likely to encounter.