Agree. Bytes and bits mix is quite awful. For implementation purposes it could be more programming oriented. 0¹²⁸ -> `[0] * 16` (it's python oriented, maybe C has short idiom for that) or nice example with padded data: 0¹²⁰10000111 -> `[0] * 15 || 0b10000111`. `X` should be clearly 'X'.

I guess crypto pros are ok with notation. But for hobbyist it requires some reverse engineering every time.