Only for westerners with enough experience using Japanese pieces.
I was not talking about japanese pieces. The issue is whether people without any experience whatsoever could see the difference between this and this , or whether they would need help of a surrounding pentangle before they could spot the difference. Seems to me the pentagle is totally useless. Of course it would be far easier still to see the difference between this and this .
There is no accounting for tastes, but some representations are just objectively inferior. This could be measured by how long it takes people not familiar with any of the representations under test can see the solution to trivial problems (like "what is the best capture in this position", while PxQ is possible). That there are people that like the inferior doesn't make it any less inferior.
I was not talking about japanese pieces. The issue is whether people without any experience whatsoever could see the difference between this
and this 
, or whether they would need help of a surrounding pentangle before they could spot the difference. Seems to me the pentagle is totally useless. Of course it would be far easier still to see the difference between this 
and this 
.
There is no accounting for tastes, but some representations are just objectively inferior. This could be measured by how long it takes people not familiar with any of the representations under test can see the solution to trivial problems (like "what is the best capture in this position", while PxQ is possible). That there are people that like the inferior doesn't make it any less inferior.