Hi Gary,
One rationale I have heard is that ‘visual scripting’ helps non-programmer artists create and communicate with programmers in larger team projects.
I’m not very experienced but my impression is that visually-oriented people benefit by having their algorithms symbolically represented.
I think this makes fairly good sense for SketchUp users who are, after all, creating 3D models. Even if not apparently ‘linear’, the process of creating models is ‘visually’ algorithmic. Line by line, shape by shape, so to speak.
John McClenahan’s excellent post shows a more, linear, verbal approach to using/learning Live Components. I think it’s a perfect example of that ‘mental flip’ because he’s walking us through the graph and nodes to make a shape (or a shelf actually).
As a sort of funny aside: I showed my brother who is an electrical engineer/programmer a Dynamic Component I had made. I knew that I had made an almost ridiculously nested function but when he saw it he said, “Don’t be afraid to make intermediate variables”. Well, I needed to nest everything so I could see what I was doing :)!