Maybe it is sometimes? Maybe not? Nobody does a great job of quantifying this stuff. Sometimes a lot of lines where each line is very simple and clear is net e

Maybe it is sometimes? Maybe not? Nobody does a great job of quantifying this stuff. Sometimes a lot of lines where each line is very simple and clear is net easier to deal with than a few very short lines that are cryptic and whose details are hidden from you. Sometimes it doesn't matter either way, because once the code is done, it works forever and you never have to touch it again. Sometimes the languages that save you lines of code cost you at runtime, or compile time, which is a loss. So I don't think it is always a big win, but maybe sometimes it is.