It is a straw man argument because you chose a single easy example where something was flexible but ill defined to refute the claim that flexible is not an antonym of well defined.

All you did was show that flexible is not a synonym of well defined, but that was never assertion.

The author maintained that adding the list of functions to be called (with different names) as a list instead of "recursive function calls" was somehow easier to understand.

So he was doing exactly what you are arguing for: Removing the cleverness. In his mind, instead of using the fancy-dancy clever recursive function calls, he used a simple-straight forward state machine. Anyone can understand a state machine! You can always break it down into a series of boolean logic statements, what's simpler than that?

Its exactly what BrowserUK is pointing out. What is "clever" and what is "simple" depends entirely on your level of understanding, and your training.