It's probably a matter of style at some level.

I hate this style (from the article):

  if (...) {
        if (...) {
            ...
    } else {
        if (...) {
            ...
        } else if (...) {
            ...
        } else {
            ...
        }
    }

and prefer this:

  if (...) 
  {
      if (...) 
      {
        ...
      } 
      else 
      {
          if (...) 
          {
            ...
          } 
          else if (...) 
          {
            ..
          } 
          else 
          {
            ...
          }
      }
  }

The first example is confusing and hard to read. The second is clean and easy to read.

As to the question of optimization, that's a different matter. Lots of tricks can be used to compress code into fewer statements on a case by case basis:

  if(pushbutton == 0)
  {
    led = 12;
  }
  else
  {
    led = 24;
  }

can become

  led = (pushbutton == 0) ? 12 : 24;

or

  led = (pushbutton * 12) + 12;

or

  led = 12 * (pushbutton + 1);

etc.