Reading regex is much easier than writing them when using visualization tools such as https://regexper.com/, https://regex101.com/, and https://jex.im/regulex/, especially for beginners. I always use them to read regex.
How did I not know about this! Thank you very much. This solves my biggest gripe with regex.
> my coworkers were happy about it because they could understand the regex and even modify it.
The most important point. Computers might read code efficiently, but if people can't reason about it, that is a recipe for bugs to sneak in.