A terminal doesn't need SSH integration, but it's convenient if it does, to allow you to easily start and manage connections. Is there something inherently unsafe about such an integration?

There's something inherently unsafe with replacing an industry-standard security tool with anything.

I don't think it's inconvenient enough to type `ssh -i key_file name@host` that we need to be creating more security risk to skip typing it.

> I don't think it's inconvenient enough to type `ssh -i key_file name@host` that we need to be creating more security risk to skip typing it.

Also, you can easily configure that in your .ssh/config file, even with different options per host or group of hosts.

Nobody needs anything ever but sometimes things are useful.

Surely a few bash aliases for the same purpose are equally useful and more portable?

I mean that's literally what terminal integration is, right? A bunch of bash aliases that the terminal emulator knows about.