[IanCal]

And even less than someone who wrote an interpreter for the script, less than someone who also chanted times tables while doing it.

More thinking isn’t a simple good thing. Given a limit to how much thought I can give any specific task, adding extra work may mean less where it’s most useful.

[Planktonne]

That's not a good-faith argument; obviously we're talking about relevant thought, rather than distraction (which, in context, would be less thought).

[IanCal]

It is a good faith argument, my point is exactly that the actual scripting was not part of the relevant thought any more than the interpreter would have been.