You're absolutely right, if it was for a serious application...

... but it's for fun! 8 )

Would be lovely to deflate an asciigraphic with just one or two commands in the shell.

UPDATE: simple example for run-length decoding with RegEx

  DB<93> $_=" /10 20\\10\n<10 8LO2K! 8 >10\n \\10 20/10";


  DB<94> s/(.)(\d+)/$1x$2/ge;print
 //////////                    \\\\\\\\\\
<<<<<<<<<<        LOOK!         >>>>>>>>>>
 \\\\\\\\\\                    //////////
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