The less is more philosophy isn't new, in fact, it's rooted in some of the world's oldest philosophies, religions, art, etc. It's not something that engineers grasp easily. Engineers see the world in terms of features, and features that increase convenience as a net good. But convenience is often bartered against critical thinking, and that's why conveniences in editing code like syntax highlighting, autocomplete, may not be the clear wins they are assumed to be.