Here is my new theory about layout.

Fundamentally, people are capable of reading text, as long as it is printed in a clear font at a reasonable size.

But show this text to a layout artist and they say: "That has really bad layout. Give me money and I will lay this out for you."

So we do.

The layout artist moves the margins a bit, talks about widows and orphans, changes the font and gives it back.

However, people would happily have read it as it was.