You did pick up that the author is an associate professor teaching classes, not a student, right?
How studying something super optimized to be small is more practical than learning something step by step?
I am not saying studying those tiny compilers is not useful, just that they are not a good starting point for most people. First you need to learn the basics then you can learn (and appreciate) those tiny compilers.
It's because everything can be seen at once. The feeling of "that's it?" when you realise the underlying simplicity. Most people think compilers must be incomprehensibly complex. Yet the truth is far from that.
seriously he did tell you to read the original post and just a couple of click laters you can find out the OP is a professor not a student..