It does look easier, but in practice one edits org-mode docs in Emacs so typing the three keystrokes s<[Tab] at the beginning of a line produces:

    #+BEGIN_SRC 

    #+END_SRC

The cursor is left at the end of the first line where one presumably types the word python or c or shell or whatever language you'd like the code block to be treated as.

Once editing the code block, typing C-' takes you to a dedicated editing pane that runs in an emacs major mode most appropriate for the language being edited, with full Emacs programming language support. It's really painless, other than learning Emacs first, (LOL, but honestly really worth it).

Easier to write, yes, but only outside of emacs (and anything with good snippet support). Within emacs, <s TAB expands to

  #+BEGIN_SRC |
  
  #+END_SRC 

with the cursor placed to specify a language.

As for readability, I don't think it's clear at all that ```...``` beats

  #+BEGIN_SRC perl
  ...
  #+END_SRC

* * *

As it turns out, I hadn't refreshed the page for hours, and someone else said pretty much the same five hours before.