Yes, I do know where the parentheses belong. Like I said earlier, it isn't hard to read ruby like this once you get used to reading ruby.

> While any programmer who would write this deserves to be fired...

That's exactly my point. The only example you could come up with was a straw man.

> ...I can't come up with a good reason why it should be valid to write it in the first place.

Can you come up with a good reason it matters in practical, real world situations?