[enanoretozon]

It causes readers to either slap their foreheads and say 'oh wow, 200 lines? I could have done that! why didn't I think of it?' or 'oh wow, it takes true genius to hit just the right 200 lines. I could have never done that!', the common factor being 'oh wow'

[palish]

Why is the "I could have done that" reaction a good thing?

That implies "this should have been done from the beginning, but the developers were lazy / incompetent"

Also, it is better to have 500 lines of well-commented code with informative variable names, than just the right 200 lines. Software development should not be reserved for voodoo witch doctors who know just the right mysterious incantation to produce the desired effect.

Encouraging people to have the mentality "do it in < N lines or don't try" seems silly.