I don't think that downside is unavoidable. In the same way that you can't expect somebody to create some or all of a web page without at least a basic understa

I don't think that downside is unavoidable. In the same way that you can't expect somebody to create some or all of a web page without at least a basic understanding of some form of markup, you can't expect a linguist to handle various differing cases without an understanding of conditionals. This is a classic case of "make things as simple as possible... but no simpler". You've achieved the first bit. To go any simpler would lose vital granularity.