IMO the visual wire/node paradigm of Max/MSP and Pure Data makes a lot of sense because it builds upon the "plug one box into another" interface that electronic music hardware follows, and because it can mirror electronic circuit layouts. I find it far easier to follow complex signal flows (especially with animated realtime diagrams showing numeric values in real time) in a visual layout vs. static text blocks.

Also more recent versions of Max/MSP have "mc" (multi-channel connections so you don't have to create separate wires/nodes for multiple identical signals) and text-based programming nodes with "~gen" and JavaScript.