I definitely understand it. It's not a matter of understanding the syntax. It's a matter of teaching people most effectively. Here's a comparison of the spoken explanation of the code:

  't' equals the value of 'array' at index 'm' minus 1 and 'm' equals itself minus 1.

vs

  'm' equals itself minus 1.
  't' equals the value of 'array' at index 'm'.

To me one of those seems more concise for writing production code, and the other more useful for teaching algorithms.