An interesting example of going too far the other way (favoring readability without enough thought to writability) is Applescript. It's very easy to read, even for those without too much programming experience. But it turns out that it's very difficult to write Applescript scripts.

John Gruber wrote a good essay on the flaws of Applescript a few years back: http://daringfireball.net/2005/09/english-likeness_monster