> the syntax is strange and reflects an earlier evolution of the ideas that went into the tidyverse.

Because it's the "grammar of graphic" see the link below.

https://ramnathv.github.io/pycon2014-r/visualize/ggplot2.htm...

If you don't like that syntax use another library. But ggplot2 how you code graphic like that is amazing for me and many other people. I've tried SAS and Matlab and ggplot2 is the best.