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That's ridiculous.

Obviously `ctx` is the most readable.

Its obvious from the context that "c" is the only variable name that should represent a context.

> when confronted, they explained to me as one would a child, that they cared deeply about code quality

these people sound useless.

Readability as it applies to code is how easy it is to read the code and understand it in relation to how complicated the problem domain is.

The best choice is whichever is more consistent with the surrounding codebase. For an outsider to the codebase, you could argue for 'context' being better, But to someone familiar to the codebase, if contexts are always in a variable 'ctxt', then 'ctxt' will instantly parse correctly without a hitch since it'll be interpreted as a single symbol.

There's a simple test for readability. Someone familiar with the codebase reads the code and tries to understand what it does (a.k.a. a code review).

If it takes a low effort, then it's high readability. If it takes a high effort, then it's low readability.