...which implies that (when viewing a computation as a sequence of states [vertices] connected by transitions [edges]) the more functional one's program is, the larger the chunks are that one can effectively model as atomic transitions, and the shorter these state sequences are.
Reducing N may not qualitatively do much from the pedant's point of view, but if one's (formal or informal) analyses tend to scale as O(N*3), reducing N quantitatively may make a difference: between tractable (for formal analysis) or "fits in developers' heads" (for informal analysis) on the one hand, and a big ball of mud on the other.
Reducing N may not qualitatively do much from the pedant's point of view, but if one's (formal or informal) analyses tend to scale as O(N*3), reducing N quantitatively may make a difference: between tractable (for formal analysis) or "fits in developers' heads" (for informal analysis) on the one hand, and a big ball of mud on the other.