I can find references on how to do it through the CLI but none of the GUI apps I’ve tried seem to support this.
Did you see Poedit? Cross-platform GUI for preparing and producing gettext-translations (with some limitation compared to fresh CLI-tools)
Is it common for the developer to just use the CLI to create these .pot files and then translators just provide the .po files?
Yes, CLI have more flexibility in some areas and isn’t too hard to use (after learning curve)
Am I missing something? Are there no tools used that take care of the whole process?
Just learn Poedit (while xgettext&Co is still better)
I’m just trying to figure out how everyone does this with non-programmers in their team
Translators have Poedit (which they know how to use) and get updated pots, return changed po back