FRP is awesome and is an example of how something previously thought of as an inherently imperative problem can be much easily done declaratively; we completely agree on this!
What I was talking about is: almost all lower-level abstractions are designed with the view of computer as a state machine. If we are solving a problem at an abstraction low enough to make us deal with this analogy, it is easier not to have a declarative layer in between.
machines/pipes/conduits are all very interesting and I was going to mention them too, but I still don't think they solve this problem in the way OP was referring to.
What I was talking about is: almost all lower-level abstractions are designed with the view of computer as a state machine. If we are solving a problem at an abstraction low enough to make us deal with this analogy, it is easier not to have a declarative layer in between.
machines/pipes/conduits are all very interesting and I was going to mention them too, but I still don't think they solve this problem in the way OP was referring to.