I have had some amazing learning experiences from watching someone live code. When the intention is to show people how to actually go about the act of coding it

I have had some amazing learning experiences from watching someone live code. When the intention is to show people how to actually go about the act of coding itself then it makes sense to do so with a live demo. In the cases that worked for me the live coding was very much a performance; a scripted lecture that combined theory and implementation with a little room for questions. Unless the context is a coding lesson, though, I agree that live coding is unnecessary and somewhat stressful to watch. It's like watching someone swallow a sword, I don't want to see it go poorly.