Regex in xml? Now you have 2 problems. And the comments are not xml comments even.

Ultimately it is a dsl. Should equations in math also use full words and comments?

No, they should not. Maybe a nice syntax for grammars like raku is a better approach.

I couldn't care less if it looks more like XML or Python or C or whatever. It's just an example.

I just care that things have readable text names rather than inscrutable punctuation and single letters.

Yes, it is a DSL. Just like, you know, Python or C or HTML or CSS. Just because it's a DSL doesn't mean it can't actually use keywords instead of punctuation.