> Given that complexity, the hypothesis was simple: tackle the hardest syntax first and the rest will follow.
Always nice to see. I've seen people fall into the trap of designing for the common case, not realizing most of the code will be to deal with the less common cases.
In another field I have heard it called going for the jugular; the vivid description helps get the point across nicely.
If you want to master something, you will have to know the hardest part. So just deal with that first and then everything else is easy, because you are dealing with it as somebody who has already mastered the domain.