Create functional processing pipe (without eval)?

I'm pondering about creating a functional processing pipe, depending
on program parameters, and whether that's possible to achieve without
using 'eval'.

Say, the program is called "filter" and may accept 0..N parameters and
depending on the set of parameters the respective pipe functionality
shall be defined like

  filter               =>  cat
  filter p1            =>  cat | func p1
  filter p1 p2         =>  cat | func p1 | func p2
  filter p1 p2 ... pN  =>  cat | func p1 | func p2 | ... | func pN

where "func" is working as filter and accepts exactly one parameter.

(Because of reservations I have with 'eval' and quoting I'd like to
avoid that 'eval' indirection if possible.)

I think it's [in principle] not possible [without 'eval'] in shell
(POSIX, Ksh, Bash) but I'm interested to hear opinions...

Janis