Jeff King [off-list ref] writes:
I dunno. I wrote that original set of lua pretty-format patches to try
to stop the insanity once and for all. But I realized that I do not
actually want to do anything complicated with the output formats, and
"--oneline" and a few simple "--format" calls usually are enough.
Yeah, I share that exactly, and %+ and friends are meant to be on
this side of the line between "a few simple" and "complicated". I
was not sure which side %if() falls myself, and while I still am not
sure, if I were asked to decide which today, I would probably say it
is on the "simple" side.