Earlier quoted context omitted.
No code is readable right off the bat. I mean you need to see it (meaning look at it in your editor), piece it together in your brain, and then place it in the context of the rest of the code. Of course, that doesn't sound like a big deal, but it adds up. Some code might be readable more quickly but again, it's about tradeoffs. To take an extreme example, suppose the "instantly" readable method results in 10000 lines…
If your code isn't readable right off the bat, you're doing it wrong. At one place I worked I had a BA who was nosey and came and tried looking over my shoulder at one point at some file manipulation code I'd written. Now I used to put a lot of time and effort into writing nice neat code, but this was something for me alone, so I hadn't bothered putting in the comments that I normally would. Anyway, because I wanted…
Furthermore, there's dramatic disagreement about what is actually more readable. I have an ongoing debate with a coworker about the relative readability of
widgets.each |w|
return true if w.can_frobnicate?
end
return false
widgets.any?(&:can_frobnicate?)
At any rate, though, as long as readability is subjective, I think all the rest of this debate is in question.