You don't have to be a sysadmin to be comfortable with command line tools. If you want to fully utilize your *NIX system you have to learn how to use that shit, it really isn't that hard.
I am comfortable with command line tools. I just don't remember every switch and flag I happen to use twice a year, and the fact that command line utilities are totally inconsistent in subtle but significant ways, coupled with the overall unreadability of man pages and lack of examples in them makes this process difficult.
I'm a very proficient user of command line tools, but I don't remember everything: my shell history is set to 50,000 lines, and it's the first thing I search if I've forgotten something.
Sequences of commands sometimes get pasted into a conveniently-located text file; if I find myself repeating the operation I might turn it into a script, a shell function for my .zshrc, or an alias.
Just 10 minutes ago:
mysqldump [args] | nc -v w.x.y.z 1234
nc -v -l 1234 | pv | mysql [args]
(after an initial test that showed adding "gzip -1" was slower than uncompressed gigabit ethernet.)
(I'm a developer.)