Its current year and IDEs still can’t remember how I just transformed the snippet of code and suggest to transform the rest of the files in the same way. All they can do in “refactor” menu is only “rename” and then some extract/etc nonsense which no one uses irl.
By using regexps I have an experience that opens many doors, and the fact that they aren’t automatic could make me sad, if only these doors weren’t completely shut without that experience.
No one is stopping you from using regexps in IDEs.
And you somehow manage to undersell the rename functionality in an IDE. And I've used move/extract functionality multiple times.
I do however agree that applicable transformations (like upgrading to new syntaxes, or ways of doing stuff as languages evolve) could be applied wholesale to large chunks of code.
By using regexps I have an experience that opens many doors, and the fact that they aren’t automatic could make me sad, if only these doors weren’t completely shut without that experience.