Redundancy is an important part of communication and error- robustness I both human and computer languages.
RAS Syndrome is a sweet spot trading off economy of characters/syllables vs clarity of message. As with most things humans gravitate to, it is a rational act, not a stupid one.
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds."
Nope, completely disagree. It is not a rational act, it indicates thoughtlessness in language. And much as I like the Emerson quote, it does not apply here. The question isn't consistency, it's accuracy and clarity. The redundancy does not add anything -- your assertion that it adds error robustness makes no sense because the communication medium is not lossy.
Even if in the general case redundancy can be useful -- I don't correct others' spoken conversation so long as I can understand what's being communicated any more than you do -- in this case it detracts and distracts.
RAS Syndrome is a sweet spot trading off economy of characters/syllables vs clarity of message. As with most things humans gravitate to, it is a rational act, not a stupid one.
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds."