It seems to me you're being pretty breezy about readability. At most places, developer time is by far the most expensive commodity, and the limiting factor in creating more user value.
In particular, bad readability is one of the sources of a vicious circle where normalization of deviance [1] leads to a gradual worsening of the code and a gradual increase in developer willingness to write around problems rather than clean the up. Over time, this death by a thousand cuts leads to the need for a complete rewrite, because that's easier than unsnarling things.
For throwaway code, I of course don't care about readability at all. But for systems that we are trying to sustain over time, I'm suspicious of anything that nudges us toward that vortex.
In particular, bad readability is one of the sources of a vicious circle where normalization of deviance [1] leads to a gradual worsening of the code and a gradual increase in developer willingness to write around problems rather than clean the up. Over time, this death by a thousand cuts leads to the need for a complete rewrite, because that's easier than unsnarling things.
For throwaway code, I of course don't care about readability at all. But for systems that we are trying to sustain over time, I'm suspicious of anything that nudges us toward that vortex.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalization_of_deviance