How many of those still apply?

All of them, I think. I suppose you could argue that (1) doesn't apply if you're copying and pasting the code from Perl Monks, but you still have to understand the code and adapt it to your precise requirements, both of which are more difficult when the code is more complicated.

I'm bewildered by your objection, to be honest. Do you seriously think it's a good idea to optimise code that’s already fast enough? There’s an interesting debate to be had about “premature optimisation”, but I've never heard anyone advocate needless optimisation.

Perhaps I'm missing your point. Would you care to elaborate?