You forgot that while expression can be trees, statements are an ordered set. And most statements fits inside one line. So a diff that relies on lines gives en

You forgot that while expression can be trees, statements are an ordered set. And most statements fits inside one line. So a diff that relies on lines gives enough information. Also git can be made to ignore whitespace changes (a source of noise) and can refine a hunk to highlight what has changed. That’s plenty enough for most people.