[aranw]

> if it's more _easily_ comprehended (faster, with less effort, with fewer mistakes in comprehension) with the highlighting

But this is completely relevant to the person reading. It may be for you easier with highlighting but someone else it may not be

[alkonaut]

Yes. And there should be studies that show that the number of people who are hampered by syntax highlighting is probably so vanishingly small sompared to those that are either helped or not helped (unhelped, but not hampered)

Syntax highlighting studies usually don't report on whether some subjects perform worse with syntax highlighting - usually only that they as a group perform better. But even with that evidence, it should be obvious that syntax highlighting should be either on for everyone, or on initially and off as an option for the rare individual.

https://ppig.org/files/2015-PPIG-26th-Sarkar1.pdf