This sort of thing will likely be surprising to someone new to Rspec. However, as a general rule, I don't think it's fair to knock tools because they're a bit tough for new users to understand. Someone new to vim is hopelessly lost and slow at first, but I can fly with it, because I've taken the time to learn it.

Yes, I had to invest some time to learn about Rspec's 'be_' construction; yes, it confused me at first. However, having learned it, I always use it now. I really enjoy the readability of the code that results from it.

As in many things, there is a tradeoff here. It's fair for both of us to argue that we prefer to sacrifice different things.