> often makes it more difficult for a human to understand.
Does it though? I guess it depends on the type system.
For example, when I find it hard to understand Haskell code, it's not because of the type system, it's usually that the compiler is doing too much magic for me (with type classes, and automatically lifting things into monads).
I find that having the types actually makes the code itself easier to understand, because I can ask the compiler (usually through the REPL) to tell me what kind of thing can go where. It makes that kind of information more local.
For example, when I find it hard to understand Haskell code, it's not because of the type system, it's usually that the compiler is doing too much magic for me (with type classes, and automatically lifting things into monads).
I find that having the types actually makes the code itself easier to understand, because I can ask the compiler (usually through the REPL) to tell me what kind of thing can go where. It makes that kind of information more local.