> I used it for 40 years and I never had any problems understanding programs written by others

That's quite exceptional. Have you never worked on legacy code or with below average devs?

I've been a consultant for a long time and in that role you were hired only to fix old systems that the resident staff refused to maintain, because not sexy. I didn't mind, it paid good money and I have seen a lot of companies from the inside which is also a plus. The dev were not below average, they just weren't interested.