That is not "obfuscated", but rather J-style.

The rationale is: To write a J interpreter/compiler you need to know J. If you know J, then J-style C is easy to work with.

The example I use is: is it easier to read "a + b", or "a plus b"? In many cases, what looks like obfuscation is just shorthand notation.

The appropriate counterexample here is which is easier to read, "a plus b" or "aplusb"? :)