Speaking for myself, I find that whenever I think "I just can't see how..." it makes me want to figure out what it is that others can see that I can't. This is the reason I learnt APL, actually, after seeing half a page of k code and feeling annoyed that I couldn't read it. k subsequently led me to APL.
You can try it for yourself -- NumPy is a fair "Iverson ghost" -- APL without the symbols: it has a similar enough array model, and most of the APL primitives as functions or methods. APL lets you express linear algebra in a very natural way. Doing it in NumPy is much more convoluted.
The claim isn't that writing is faster, the claim is that there's less pointless boilerplate to write, read, or think about. You didn't write your comment as:
"quote fast unquote is not relevant hyphen the runtime would be just as fast if the code was written in plain words period code size is also irrelevant unless you apostrophe are called initial capital elon musk period the only claim left is that it apostrophe s a productivity boost comma but i just can apostrophe t see how a language that needs a special keyboard to be written can be written more productively than actual words comma especially with modern initialism ide s period"
because symbols are useful. And people don't have a problem with peppering code with chorded symbols like () ++ {} : <> ? without demanding that they be turned into words because words are easier. In fact people struggle when making new languages (Rust, C# new versions) to find more symbol combinations, reaching for things like Python's triple quote strings """ """ and :: and ""u8 and so on.
There's nothing inherently better about shift-2 shift-2 shift-2 shift-2 shift-2 shift-2 than altgr+i
Why aren't the common operations of transforming collections short, sharp, and getting out of your way? Why are they ceremonious "map a lambda which takes a parameter with a name and ..." when you don't need that.
You can try it for yourself -- NumPy is a fair "Iverson ghost" -- APL without the symbols: it has a similar enough array model, and most of the APL primitives as functions or methods. APL lets you express linear algebra in a very natural way. Doing it in NumPy is much more convoluted.
Or try Rob Pike's (of Go fame) "ivy" -- his attempt at an APL-with-words (https://github.com/robpike/ivy).