And this is likely one of those zombie rules. It's a trivial case and anyone with a semblance of programming knowledge understands what happens. You don't even need the else statement in GP's case. Meanwhile, any non-trivial case is so context-dependent you can't blindly apply rules and claim to have the best result or even just a better result from what people would come up with naturally.

The fact everything is context-dependent is the basis of all these discussions to begin with. We severely lack evidence and most rules are hearsay taken as gospel.