[aninhumer]

The need to know exactly what is being built is not completely incompatible with the notion of abstraction. Sure, trying to apply software ideas to hardware with no understanding is a recipe for disaster, but that's not what people are suggesting. The goal is to recognise and abstract patterns in hardware design.

Your example of for loops being fragile is actually a good argument for higher level abstractions: maps and folds are much better tools for working with hardware, since they constrain you to a specific hardware layout, and make it clear what's happening.

>Traditionally you first design your module conceptually on a whiteboard (or Excel, Viso, etc.), then implement it in an HDL.

So wouldn't it be nice if the language you used could express the same concepts you use in your higher level diagrams?