but i think i understand the sentence, and so reading it makes me feel very smart ;-)

I think the idea is that the sentence introduces a contrived example, and so the author used roundabout words. Snake sentences sound sibilantly. It's a blog post.

Related nitpick: “maxima” is the plural form, “maximum” is the singular.

Since you care about the quality of your writing: you almost certainly meant "one's" or "one is", not "ones".

"Outright smarmy" is spicy, I give you that :)

The comment in your frobulate code suggests one is to forbulate, yet reading The code it is very clear that there will only be frobulation happening in the outlined proceedings. Perhaps a minor revision is required.