I think an interesting aspect of this is the shared understanding amongst your colleagues / contributors. I’ve been thinking about this in relation to ES6. Some of the new syntax (e.g. destructuring, spread operator) is terser and therefore probably easier to read, once you know it. In the short term though, unfamiliar colleagues may be more likely to misread and misunderstand it.

In this case, I would prefer to err on the side of using the new syntax and encourage everyone to familiarise with it, rather than avoid it because of short term confusion. But it’s always important to put yourself in the shoes of other people who might read your code, when you’re writing it.