>I think equating ugly with hard-to-read is a common mistake

This is just a semantics argument. I can replace "ugly" with "hard-to-read" if you want. I think it's both, in this instance.

>Honestly, I find that rating the readability of the object versions vs the switch statement is bikeshedding.

I agree in the context of code review, but since this is what we're talking about I figured I'd share my opinion.

>Another thing that is worth mentioning is that objects consume memory and allocating memory in JS for this is just wasting orders of magnitudes more cycles and sacrificing throughput for no good reason - other than to try to be clever and avoid an idiomatic and optimizable construct.

Premature optimization. If you need to optimize, then do it. Otherwise you should prioritize what you consider understandable and easy-to-write code. I guarantee the vast majority of javascript written would not be ill-affected by this.