I'm not addressing your overall point, but one thing I learned about recently that could help in debugging those Ruby one-liners is the `tap` method. You can stick it in the chain and set a breakpoint.
def build_hash_or_whatever
hash = Hash.new
hash[:foo] = some_generating_method
hash[:bar] = "some value" if whatever?
# More hash construction nonsense
hash
end
def build_hash_or_whatever
Hash.new.tap do |hash|
hash[:foo] = some_generating_method
hash[:bar] = "some value" if whatever?
# More hash construction nonsense
end
end