> And yes, when we read with a practiced eye, we do pattern match entire words at once. But it's much easier to get to that point with a simpler, composable writing system
It is not. From the moment you learn a character in Chinese you are sight-reading by shape. It doesn't take much practice at all. Every bilingual Chinese-English person I know prefers reading Chinese, no matter how long they have been exposed to both languages as it is less mentally straining. English is my first language and even I experience this to some degree.
But until you do learn a Chinese character, you are unable to read it at all. Whereas with an alphabet or a syllabary, you can read anything as soon as you learn the letters; memorizing the shapes of the words comes later, and then only for those words you actually see often.
There's a reason why Hangul was a big deal in Korea when it was introduced, and why the upper classes tried to actively suppress it - it did, in fact, made reading and writing more accessible to the common folk. The same reasons why it was true then still apply.
It is not. From the moment you learn a character in Chinese you are sight-reading by shape. It doesn't take much practice at all. Every bilingual Chinese-English person I know prefers reading Chinese, no matter how long they have been exposed to both languages as it is less mentally straining. English is my first language and even I experience this to some degree.