My manager and our qa team like that they can read what we are testing step by step in plain English and reason about it the same way. If they want a new step they often request it in a similar format to the ones we have written, or directly suggest reusing a step from another test.
You dont get that for free, but i disagree with it being a 'mess' of regex...Regex for test steps is usually as simple as a basic string or number capture pattern. It's 100% a skill issue if it ends up 'messy'.
If you need something more complicated than regex you use a data source file for parameters with named columns....Which brings me nicely round to how easy it is for qa or management to look at the data being tested and again, reason about it, make suggestions, spot missing cases, etc.
Oh and one more thing. I get a bit of a 'hur durr regex bad because its regex' vibe from your comment. Regex is absolutely the right tool for the job here. The alternative would be a custom DSL.
Just to pre-empt anyone saying 'but nobody will ever read them'...that absolutely isn't true in my company.
Qa read every test we write. Management reads ones of high importance, sometimes.
Ps: everyone is very happy with this arrangement, quality is very important, bugs are unacceptable for our products, and auditors wouldnt pass us if they saw inadequate testing