Readability is exactly the reason why I prefer explicit start/end markers, and dislike the Python-like implicit style.

So yeah, for me it makes the language less readable, that is, it makes it harder to parse the code as I read it.

Your mileage may vary indeed...

readability <> verbosity

I wish IDEs/text editors enabled code to be rendered and edited in different ways: braces, do/end, whitespace. That could very well be a good way to resolve these disagreements.

I think Ruby's do/end is most readable variant.

Python using whitespace doesn't allow me to mess up and have my formatter autoformat it. Js and others with {} have way too many symbols flying around for easy parsing.

Thats why I really like crystal! Do/end, low level, elegant. Wish the devs would focus more on wasm and other features that would put it more in the spotlight.