#4 is most of the point of using most languages. Languages that operate at a higher level 'aka. saving keystrokes' generally do so by offering higher level cons

#4 is most of the point of using most languages. Languages that operate at a higher level 'aka. saving keystrokes' generally do so by offering higher level constructs. (a) -> (b) -> (c) -> ((x) -> (y) -> (z)) is readable and understandable in coffee script the same is not true for javascript, but it's just a 'few extra keystrokes' to do the same thing in Javascript. Same thing in mathematics, it's just a few extra keystrokes to express 2 ^ 3 ^ 4 ^ 6 ^ 7 in basic addition, same thing with calculus and algebra. The point is valid in the trivial case but as soon as you start looking at saving a few keystrokes as a 'expressive power' then it makes a lot of sense to use a language like coffeescript. Once you start using the expressive power of a higher order language, it's an order of magnitude more keystrokes in the less expressive language.