This "level of abstraction" euphemism actually means "the level at which I'm not reading code anymore even and especially if I should". Of course, linear code is more readable! Linear everything is more readable. Have you ever seen a novel with "levels of abstraction" in it?
But nobody reads the code anymore. Why bother? You're not going to stay on a single project for long enough for the attention investment to pay off. So the common best practice at the moment is to pretend that you read the code without actually reading it. For this purpose, the green code is much much better.
> Linear everything is more readable. Have you ever seen a novel with "levels of abstraction" in it?
Not if you're in the business of writing novels. What happens if you decide to edit out a scene - do you re-read the entire book to double-check that the deleted scene wasn't referenced anywhere?
I realize this is tongue in cheek, but really: Read code!
If you ever start plateauing in your code skills, start digging into the code of your favorite open source project. Accept that things have been done in another way than you would for a reason and try to understand that reason.
Try joining advent of code[0], and make sure to spend half you time block on reading and understanding alternative solutions.
But nobody reads the code anymore. Why bother? You're not going to stay on a single project for long enough for the attention investment to pay off. So the common best practice at the moment is to pretend that you read the code without actually reading it. For this purpose, the green code is much much better.