This is a silly example altogether. First, it doesn't necessarily imply that someone writing code like this doesn't understand how expressions work. The author

This is a silly example altogether. First, it doesn't necessarily imply that someone writing code like this doesn't understand how expressions work. The author is trying to psychologically model people who code in this manner. I could similarly claim that the else there is unnecessary since the boolean is false by default. If it's a language that doesn't require variables to be declared first, I could claim that the assignment is itself unnecessary. I could then make a further claim that a person who codes like this doesn't understand expressions. Second, the problem is taken out of context. What happens next? There'll be an if(else) statement somewhere to determine what happens next, and then the if(else) the author has painstakingly avoided will be back.