What is lamentable is calling someone else's favorite indentation style lamentable. :-) I personally prefer K&R, and find your style extremely ugly; the first thing I do when I'm confronted with code like that is pass it through perltidy.

I won't get into the "reasons" for my preference because they are all subjective, and decades of history have proven that this discussion is futile.

Coming soon: why cherry ice cream sucks and chocolate ice cream rules!