I.e. calling methods like functions inside a block which defines the target object and avoids redundancy.

See also http://developer.mozilla.org/de/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/with

NB many listed contras are JS / implementation specific.

AFAIK it's kind of a (pseudo) DSL technique in Ruby to call methods with syntactic sugar (though I'm ignorant about the implementation there)

It's not nonsensical if the intention was ...

I suspect that some or all of the rationales you suggest may be in play. Impossible to know, of course, unless Mano_Man is more forthcoming. However, the justification given in the OP ("Simply because it is a requirement by the team.") suggests that "logic" of the "We're doing it this way because this is the way we're doing it" school may be at work, which makes the rat-poison line of argument all the more attractive.

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Give a man a fish:  <%-{-{-{-<

agreed.

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)
Je suis Charlie!}