I actually find ergonomic to be a very clear and intuitive term as it refers to programming language design decisions.
And to use your cake analogy, the fact that a process is complex or laborious is orthogonal to the degree to which it is ergonomic. You could imagine baking a cake in a well organized kitchen with well designed, comfortable tools, or you could imagine having to stand on your toes and reach to the back of a slightly-too-high cupboard every time you need to fetch an ingredient, and having to use a mixer with way too many settings you can never remember, and none that does exactly what you want. I think this is a better analogy for ergonomics in programming languages.
> I think this is a better analogy for ergonomics in programming languages.
While it may be a better analogy, it doesn't really reflect the way the term is used. In my (admittedly anecdotal) experience, most people's complaints about ergonomics are more of expecting difficult things to be easier than they inherently are than of the actual quality of the tools they are presented with. People think they are complaining about a mixer with too many settings, when in reality what they are complaining about is the fact that there are several variables that go into mixing batter and dough. They buy a mixer that's targeted at a baker or chef who wants complete control over how their batter comes out or who even needs a mixer versatile enough to also mill grain or roll pasta, then are predictably lost because it's not as immediately intuitive to use as a simple hand mixer. I don't think that makes the mixer not ergonomic, I think it just makes it not the right tool for that particular person.
And to use your cake analogy, the fact that a process is complex or laborious is orthogonal to the degree to which it is ergonomic. You could imagine baking a cake in a well organized kitchen with well designed, comfortable tools, or you could imagine having to stand on your toes and reach to the back of a slightly-too-high cupboard every time you need to fetch an ingredient, and having to use a mixer with way too many settings you can never remember, and none that does exactly what you want. I think this is a better analogy for ergonomics in programming languages.