> we don't even use indents that way in natural language.

Have you never seen a nested table of contents?

  1. Introduction
  2. Fruit
    2.1 Apples
      2.1.1 Red apples
      2.1.2 Green apples
    2.2 Oranges
  3. Vegetables
    3.1 Carrots

▲ notepad0x90 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

with apples in that list for example, you used '2.1' to indicate a new item, the space is cosmetic, the functional indicator is '2.1'

This wouldn't look right:

Introduction

  Fruit

    Apples

      Red apples

      Green apples

I'm sure you can work it out, but it doesn't feel natural, or ideal. (i can't get hn to format it without making it all one line so i used double new line).

▲ lelanthran 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Your example remains valid after the indentation is stripped, because it has markers to delineate the list and sub list items.

▲ xigoi 15 hours ago | parent [-]

It doesn’t need to; that’s just the section numbering. In a biology textbook, you could have something like (made up names)

  Arabateciae
    Arabaticopoda
    Arabaticoquasicae
  Bidoroca
    Pseudobidoroca
    Superbidoroca
      Superduperbidoroca

and the hierarchy is still clear.

	▲	notepad0x90 13 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		it would look better still with a dash or a bullet point for every sub-entry. We're not arguing that it is possible to do that, we're arguing what is ideal for readability. In that list you can naturally guess what that ordering is, but if the items were not so interrelated it can be confusing. if the top level item is 'Ham' and the indented item under it is 'sandwich' are you wrapping the same phrase 'Ham Sandwich' , because indentation (even in python) is used when wrapping lines, or is sandwich under ham as one of the things done with ham. it is thus error-prone and more confusing, clear and specific punctuation alongside indentation makes it easier to read.
	▲	lelanthran 14 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		No one is saying that indentation can not be used to display lists/sublists, I'm saying that markers remove ambiguity even across movement of blocks of texts. Indentation is fragile.