Right, I’ve finally given in to the years-old urge to change the wiki examples for multireplace away from the blue/red/green dragon. Other wiki editors should feel free to amend what I’ve thrown up there where it could be clearer (or if I’ve got anything wrong).
I think the function that really cuts down on word count is *gosub. Even more than multireplace, it’s what lets you shift from lot of repeated text to only using it once.
But both *gosub and multireplace share the issue that they take practice for non-coders to read. It certainly took me a lot of practice before I could follow my own writing easily when I started using them more consistently.
I’ve argued for years that making CS accessible to non-coders should be top priority over word count or code efficiency policing. As helpful as I’ve personally found multireplace, I wouldn’t push anyone to use it if it slows them down or makes it harder for them to follow the flow of their writing when they’re checking/re-reading it.