This should decrease cognitive load because:
- Intention is more explicit
- Shorter visual scope of branches (no need to search for matching
closing brackets and `else` blocks)
- Visually less busy code because condition-checks and code that
"actually does things" are separated, with less indentation
- Avoids chaining together a bunch of conditions to a single `if`
Also: Use `const`, correct comment placement, whitespace improvements.