I feel like this is very underspecified, The very first example:
$ echo 'cat' | trre 'c:da:ot:g'
dog
TRRE <- TRRE* TRRE|TRRE TRRE.TRRE
TRRE <- REGEX REGEX:REGEX
I do like the idea of having a search/replace semantic that is more intuitive than grouping operators; back in MS-DOS days you could do "ren .log .txt" and this would work which feels bananas to my modern bash-minded way of thinking, but it's very obvious looking at this what it is supposed to do.
This is a matter of operator precedence and tokenization. Tokens are single characters in this language, and there is an invisible operator between them.
If the operator were explicit (let’s call it ~), the example would look like this:
$ echo 'cat' | trre 'c:d~a:o~t:g'
dog
$ echo 'cat' | trre '(c:d)~(a:o)~(t:g)'
dog
Now I just worry about buying new bowls. Will the bowls fit nicely given pitch and angle of the of the dealies on the rack? The bowls I inherited from my grandmother fit so nicely in any dishwasher I've loaded them into, but now they're starting to crack...
I still try to be somewhat efficient about loading the dishwasher, but… if I notice myself stressing I just say “screw it”, run it, and wash the rest by hand.
The other thing I’ve realized is that sometimes things don’t get clean if you load them properly. For example, tall glasses that had smoothies in them. It’s a little gross if you don’t notice it until you’re about to use it, but… you can just look at them and wash them by hand when you unload the dishwasher.
I guess this is all to say that sometimes the best optimization is to not think about it too much.