What part of the syntax is intimidating? To my mind, it's not all that dissimilar from e.g. Python, which is not a language about which people express the same feeling.

Structure and control flow feels very Python/Ruby-ish, however, when you get into the depths of pattern matching and binary deconstruction or even macros, Elixir syntax can become somewhat messy. However, the same concepts, once understood, are extremely powerful for parsing or protocol handling.

Talking about stuff like this:

      nodes =
        node_data
        |> Input.split_by_line(trim: true)
        |> Enum.map(fn <<
                         t::binary-size(3),
                         " = (",
                         l::binary-size(3),
                         ", ",
                         r::binary-size(3),
                         ")"
                       >> ->
          {t, {l, r}}
        end)
        |> Enum.into(%{})

I didn't say "part of syntax is intimidating," to me all of it is.

Right now I stare at the sibling comment and just don't grasp what's going on.

Have you learned the language? Expecting to know what’s going on without having learned the syntax is a bit silly