Same reason why we write 5-3, not subtract(minuend=five, subtrahend=three).
Interestingly, discrete math feels the most "verbal" of all the subfields of math I've encountered (I haven't gone very deep). I think this is because notation in discrete math is is somehow closer to compressed prose or logic, whereas other forms of math use notation to fill in for long sequences of symbolic manipulation.
Not sure if that makes sense... I'm curious whether anyone else experiences it that way.
People genuinely struggle to think verbally or visually once we extend beyond 3 dimensions and start talking about infinite-dimensional constructs, uncountable sets, and so on...
And math is, as you know, a deep but traversable graph. The traversal inherently requires a familiarity with the nodes you pass through when reaching a foreign or more difficult concept.
However, I'll give you an example. If I read through more complex math that I’m not comfortable with in Sage, I can build an intuition for the structure of the problem more easily than if I view the “raw” notation. In that sense, it is easier to for me to “approach” — but approaching something is very different from fluently using it — and I’m under no illusion that approaching a topic is the same as beginning to understand it.
Again, this is definition-dependent. To me, “approaching” something means beginning to glean how I might one day understand it. E.g. watching a 3B1B video feels like “approaching” a topic. Here we reach the limits of language already :)