I think you've put your finger on the vital issue: catering to readability. A function call is great if you can give it a name that allows readers to read pas

I think you've put your finger on the vital issue: catering to readability. A function call is great if you can give it a name that allows readers to read past it without navigating to the implementation. If most readers are going to be interrupted by needing to navigate to the function implementation to understand it, it might be better to inline it.