I'm really not a fan of these optional syntactic elements -- I don't find that they aid comprehension. It's like optional braces in C; I get the idea -- reduce

I'm really not a fan of these optional syntactic elements -- I don't find that they aid comprehension. It's like optional braces in C; I get the idea -- reduce conceptual overhead, make the intent of the code clear -- but in practice, it's just nasty. I wonder if this is why I like scheme, or if scheme is why I like simple syntax.