While I mostly agree with you, I think that use of double indirect pointers is rare enough that in effect each use of one probably counts as a "line of code" w

While I mostly agree with you, I think that use of double indirect pointers is rare enough that in effect each use of one probably counts as a "line of code" when trying to understand what's going on. The one Linus doesn't like likely runs faster (at a microarchitectural level), it's also the thing I've done for 40 years now, it's what comes out of my fingers when I code linked lists, for me at least it's more understandable because I already understand it