There are occasional times when segmented patchcords make a patch more readable, but the vast majority of the time, they are a distraction at best. I have watched so many Max users spend quite a bit of time segmenting and organizing their patchcords. If they instead put that same effort into organizing the code, using subpatches, etc., the code would be much more readable and maintainable.
I agree, with the addition that using segmented patch chords also encourages people to optimise for readability too early on in the patch programming process. A lot of time can be wasted if people focus too much on making things look good early on in patch creation, only to find it needs to be reorganised at some later point.
Jamie