[ghusbands]

Turning a function into a string and back is also a reduction in maintainability, as programmers now have to be sure it doesn't use any captured variables or such, in future edits. Using a Uint8Array and integer constants rather than a string and character constants makes the code harder to read. Separating the sorting pass and doing some of it lazily (for good performance reasons) makes the final ordering slightly less clear.

But "completely neglected code maintainability" is definitely unfair. While you made changes that reduced maintainability, you weren't neglectful.