In the long run every program becomes rococo - then rubble. Everything should be built top-down, except the first time. If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up. A program without a loop and a structured variable isn't worth writing. A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing.
Optimization hinders evolution.
A good system can't have a weak command language. To understand a program you must become both the machine and the program. Perhaps if we wrote programs from childhood on, as adults we'd be able to read them. One can only display complex information in the mind. Like seeing, movement or flow or alteration of view is more important than the static picture, no matter how lovely.