J and K generally use symbols instead of words, but what you said still applies. I have seen very similar solutions that allow to represent J with APL symbols,

J and K generally use symbols instead of words, but what you said still applies. I have seen very similar solutions that allow to represent J with APL symbols, and it surely looks much better. But these solutions are far from optimal. The convenience of being able to write J with any hardware or software I get my hands on is huge. I can use it to write equations in emails, in my phone or tablet, in a windows computer with notepad as the only text editor. I cannot do that with APL. It's not too far, there are workarounds, but it is much less convenient. If you work with lots of formulas, you will understand the pain of practically needing paper or a blackboard to work with equations, then translate that to your favorite programming language to solve some problem, or to latex for publication. APL gave a wonderful solution to this, but it did not catch on.