[Dewie3]

That refactor is of a common pattern (I've seen it before; I've probably written it myself) into a bog-standard use of Applicative code. This use is pretty much the introductory example for Applicative. Do you use Haskell? Because Applicative is fairly well-known, and the operators etc. aren't considered esoteric and they are not something you are likely to have to learn when you encounter them. If you don't use Haskell, on the other hand, I don't see how you are in a position to critique the readability of a refactor.

The philosophy at play here is probably not code golf as much as it is about the principle of least power[1]. Applicative is strictly less powerful than Monad. So when reading Applicative code, there is less stuff to look out for -- it is great to be able to know what an expression can't do, when reading it.

Maybe the do-notation makes it look prettier, but I don't know if it makes it more readable. Maybe more superficially look like imperative code which makes one think Oh, I get this. But it might be a false sense of safety. In any case, I guess Applicative do notation can be used (at some point).

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_least_power