An interesting resource on object oriented design. The author, Aimonetti, opines that people abuse classes, using them when there are no instances defined. #likebutton
He also describes the use case for Module mixins as perfect for shared behaviors between a number of classes. This is exactly along the lines of what I was thinking to create an Expect mixin for connection accessor classes for Telnet, SSH, and Serial.
Much as I prefer structured interaction with Network devices, it seems like we are just not there yet for the devices I have to deal with. This leaves CLI interaction as a necessary method to support.