Requiring a tool to understand what a code does means that the code is not clear enough (maybe it was badly written).

More than just an opinion, I live this way. My tools are

1) Xed - small lightweight Linux text editor and

2) dirtyrat - a linter that I made specifically for the small subset of JavaScript that I chose.

Anyway, I am happy with my code and tools, as you seem happy with yours.

Note: dirtyrat helps a lot about catching errors. It is not about reading the code. In case someone is curious, its code is available on Github and this is the link for the article:

https://medium.com/codex/making-your-own-javascript-linter-part-1-ee9f91dc49d8