True. It was called Fortran IV (amongst other names). It was very simple to learn, very fast to compile and produced blindingly fast execution. It also had functions and even "exception handling", and allowed you to write well abstracted and well structured code.

It's problem was that it didn't enforce those. So, without mind numbing discipline, it became too easy to write complex, unweildy, tangled spagetti like balls of string.

Even with good discipline, each programmer tended to code each of those missing control structures in different ways. Even the simplest if X then Y else Z endif structure became:

if not X goto 10
  do Y
  goto 20
  
10
  do Z

20
  ...
[download]

Nest a few of those and see what I mean about spagetti. Another term was double negative coding. With each programmer reinventing each of the common control structures in their own coding style, over and over again, maintenance became a nightmare. Throw in a few bugs, the inevitable design changes and programmer turnover, and you can quickly see how things evolve. Add to that static memory allocation and common blocks, and the need for something better is obvious.

...

That's a counter argument. Sadly missing in this thread.