Why in the world do you have to store your password in some cleartext file in your home directory in order to not type it every time you log into IMAP or SMTP in Mutt?.
How does Thunderbird do it? Mutt needs to do it like that.
It seems like all the CLI clients run under the assumption that you are using them on the same machine that is also the mail server. Documentation about connecting to remote SMTP and IMAP servers is always incomplete and buried deep within the documentation, instead of being the first thing they tell you about because it's not 1980 and we all mostly just connect to a remote service for this. Thunderbird makes this simple by asking you immediately on first launch to give addresses and passwords to your remote accounts to it can set them up for you. Would it really be so hard for them to have a process like this in ncurses or whatever?
I really really want to start using a terminal-based email client, mostly because after the Cliqz, Riseup, Looking Glass, and other controversies, I'm not all that trusting of Mozilla right now. However, they all just seem way too dated in their usability in relation to modern trends, in a way that goes beyond the fact that "they're terminal programs"