> Since each transform needs to perform vastly different image operations, using an enum in this case would’ve forced us to write one massive switch statement to handle each and every one of those operations — which would most likely become somewhat of a nightmare to maintain.

I don't mean to pick on the author, but I've seen this line of reasoning a few times before. It's the same argument that has been used in the past to justify inheritance hierarchies in OOP languages. I used to believe it too. However, I don't think this is actually true. In fact, I'd argue the opposite: switch statements, if used well, are _extremely maintainable_. Even though a switch statement might handle many cases, it does not become more complex [1] by doing so. If we're concerned about the length of the individual cases, we can easily replace each one with a function call. Fundamentally, in the example from the article, we'd like to map a piece of data (the operation with its parameters) to some behavior (actually performing the operation). A switch statement is one of the simplest ways to do that.

[1] https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy/