I understand the sentiment. As a software engineer I refrain from clever code especially if somebody else has to come and maintain it. In this case, once you r

I understand the sentiment. As a software engineer I refrain from clever code especially if somebody else has to come and maintain it. In this case, once you realize how the defaults stack, whoever came up with the one liner indeed has come up with something clever. Also the exercise in understanding the defaults cements the understanding of awk and as others have pointed out enables you to write much cleaner awk.