If you're doing fast prototyping or hacking for fun then mindless variable names make sense, but working on a production codebase that is or will likely be shar

If you're doing fast prototyping or hacking for fun then mindless variable names make sense, but working on a production codebase that is or will likely be shared by others is a different situation. There no argument for absolute quality in code, only value relative to its use case and context. Outside of correctness of behaviour and acceptable performance, the human-readability of code probably carries the most value in most situations. Sure you can get by without it, but code that is readable will ultimately be more valued/reviewed/supported/improved.