I feel like the emphasis on preattentive processing and visual cognition in data visualization, while well-meaning, gets to the point where we coddle readers and don't expect them to, you know, learn how to read things.

Alphabets, code, spoken language & other forms of communication aren't instinctual, they're learned. It's okay to, you know, tell someone to learn how to read an axis (whether it's a non-zero baseline or logarithmic or otherwise). Maybe they'll even be better for it!

Instead, many of our dataviz rules are based on this idea that someone is going to see your chart and read it like they're responding to a predator in a jungle.

I get the well-intentioned reason for this, but it's ultimately a mark's game. You're never going to make the perfect chart that everyone gets right off the bat & there's no confusion about unless it's so simple that it probably doesn't even need to be a chart in the first place.