R is being integrated into everything little by little because there are so many algorithms available in it that just aren't available elsewhere but it has limitations and I think unless you actually get using the core R functionality you quickly run into hurdles.
It would be interesting to see if a powerbi user could use the steemR package to get data from the steem blockchain directly :)
thanks @gentlebot
Nice thought. I'll give it a try hopefully one of these days. :D