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Thank you for raising this idea. As noted in the suggestion, ACE has a variety of pre-existing capabilities which come close to what is being requested here:
1. ESQL can invoke Java but as mentioned, this requires a switch of technology and potentially a reliance on an open source library depending on the style of data you would like to write and your acceptance of what the code should look like (eg You could do everything in native Java and write to file which would remove the need for OSS libraries, but potentially still leaves a support burden for Java code).
2. Trace node which can include a user's choice of text style, and a user's choice of precise file name and location, but as noted can end up with content contributed from multiple threads of execution interspersed with one another.
3. ESQL LOG statement (writes a record to the event log or to user trace) / THROW statement, but the user does not have control over the precise file name which is used, nor other aspects such as the precise layout of the text (the message catalog helps dictate the layout of the message and how message inserts should be handled)
4. Log Message Flow node (injects text which is under the flow developer's control into the Activity Log). Note that Activity Log can be redirected to file, and an Activity Log policy can be used to dictate behaviours such as the name of the file, the file sizes, and how it should be rotated (https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/app-connect/12.0?topic=properties-activity-log-policy-activitylog).
5. Product extension for log4j node previously an IBM Support Pac but now available on GitHub: https://github.com/ot4i/node-for-log4j
So - many alternatives but not quite what is being requested, so we will move the status of this requirement to Future Consideration. It would be helpful to understand from readers .. if a new ESQL function of the type suggested were implemented, would it be best done to allow completely free form text (ie like a printf kind of thing!), or would it be preferable to structure the entries with additional fields like a common timestamp or severity level etc.