It might improve performance (in fact, it should produce nearly the same byte code; the compiler would optimize the original version of the code into pretty much this version, or this into the previous). But I think it is more readable (and reduces code duplication), because the differences between the `if` and `else` clauses are more apparent.

I would have used something like
```java
value = rs.read(new uint8(i));
if (!Preference.displayRegistersAsHex())
    value = value.getValue();
```
but the two returned objects are of different types, so I resorted to `Object`.