I think you are creating a problem where none exists. The point does not seem to be about whether a reader merely glances at something and proclaims understanding; rather, it is about whether the writer strives to make things clear to the reader. Thus, it is not about a lawyer who merely glances at a contract then asks a client to sign on the dotted line, but rather about someone writing a contract to be clear rather than to be opaque and full of gotchas.

Would you trust a lawyer who wrote contracts as though paid by the letter rather than as though paid for agreeable results? Would you, likewise, trust a lawyer who argued your case in court as though paid by how long he could make your trial last rather than as though he would only be paid if you were acquitted of all charges? What about a doctor who was paid based on how many different pharmaceutical companies' products he injected into you, rather than based on positive benefit to your health?

I prefer a programmer who writes clear code over a programmer who either plays golf with production code or bases his or her self-worth as a programmer on the number of clever tricks crammed into a simple function.