> Whatever reading comprehension advantage they may carry is completely negated by the fact that they can't be typed from a regular keyboard.

There's a curious blindspot among coders with regard to customizing their main interface with their machines. Keyboards are heavily customizable.

Some wins are extremely easy: If you want instant access to all Greek letters on a Mac (e.g.), you can have your caps lock key toggle between your standard layout and the Greek layout. (no \alpha, just α.) The rabbit hole runs deep from there if you are adventurous. Look at all the option key symbols you don't use. Swap them out for nice things like real arrows, ∈, and whatever you fancy.

Maybe you have restraints or biases about work code being all ASCII, but typeability is up to you.