Formalism is to impress people. It's public relations. Make them believe that the mathematician has a special sixth sense that just by reading first-order-like statements s(he) is able to grasp the deepest ideas. Books with no figures, that starts with unmotivated definitions and with a halmos symbol. I think is a silly myth that mathematicians like to fool themselves. Serre said that Bourbaki's books were not meant to teach, but he did not say that no Bourbaki ever objected in any way. Fuck mathematicians and fuck you too.
well what do you think?