I disagree. It's a common idiom in many programming languages including JavaScript, C, C++, Bash, etc. It's confusing the first time you see it, but it's well worth learning.

I think this just makes it print in the same order it's fed in as, since every word will pass the is digit, every word will pass through in the same order it was put through.

this is a shortcut way in python. It doesn't simplify the complexity of this function but rather causes confusion.

spoiler flag... ;)

and yes.