I like this, I think it's easier to read.

I don't care that its not the most efficient way to do things, programming languages exist to make things easier for me.

    $x=a  
    if (condition) then $x=b

If you think of programs as logic then I see the lines above as a logical expression written in CNF conjunctive normal form, where each line is a clause.

whereas this...

    $x = condition ? b : a;

...is like a nested logical expression.

And breaking the program down into clauses makes it easier to understand, for humans and computers.