Hm, couldn't you make the same argument about punch cards? The abstractions you talk about translate to different mediums differently. I think text/code/string is a very universal and low tech medium, but I don't think there's anything about it that would make it ideal for working with those abstractions. And, let's not forget that there's a myriad of different abstractions, which to me suggests that there might be as many different ideal mediums.
Given that there isn't some superior visual representation of math, I think it is reasonable to say there won't be one for code - at least for a while.
There are superior visual representations of math as soon as you add specificity such that you can measure the difference between representations in terms of their impact or other property. Equation coloring according to semantics stands out as an example of this. Interestingly, this example already has wider adoption in code than it does in math. As someone who has tried to format a latex paper to have coloring and has not had to do the same for colored code, I can understand why. Yet if you look at KhanAcademy as an example, the technology lifts much of the burden from doing the coloring, so they do the coloring, because it helps to highlight the key ideas.
It can be a fun exercise and illuminating to go over equations you've written down and try to translate them to colored variants. The classification task forces your mind to more deeply engage with the equation and can improve understanding.
I don't know man. You could say that engineering and architecture is just applied math, but blueprints are not math notation (and neither is code, by the way).
