[ncallaway]

I would disagree that their way of writing it is silly.

It is instantly plainly obvious to me what each step of their shell script is doing.

While I can absolutely understand what your shell script does after parsing it, it's meaning doesn't leap out at me in the same way.

I would describe the prior shell script as more quickly readable than the one that you've listed.

So, perhaps it's not a question of one being more silly than the other—perhaps the author just has different priorities from you?