So this quote about mathematicians seems a bit off. Baez is talking about mathematical physicists, I guess, not logicians and computer scientists. I know he is not a functional programmer from various online remarks he has made. So maybe it's more of a personal perspective that we shouldn't take too seriously.
'“Nonassociative things are strongly disliked by mathematicians,” said John Baez, a mathematical physicist at the University of California, Riverside, and a leading expert on the octonions. “Because while it’s very easy to imagine noncommutative situations — putting on shoes then socks is different from socks then shoes — it’s very difficult to think of a nonassociative situation.” If, instead of putting on socks then shoes, you first put your socks into your shoes, technically you should still then be able to put your feet into both and get the same result. “The parentheses feel artificial.”'
(I remember three separate occasions in my undergrad particle physics class where we actually went through all the calculations involved with the velocity addition formula and finally saw that SOL was wacky).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocity-addition_formula
I wonder if that is uncommon or if the article is just a bit ungenerous towards our understanding of non-associative objects.