... and that automated documentation al la doxygen, javadoc etc. is almost worse than none; as it gives the appearance of 'well documented' with none of the true benefits.

I could not agree more with this assertion. While such systems have one or two plus points (consistency of presentation, docs always in sync with code) this is usually far outweighed by the complete lack of any semantic meaning to the resulting documentation. There are no reasons given, no caveats, no SSCCEs, no algorithm references. And if/when the code author uses less than meaningful symbol names the whole exercise becomes pointless.

For the particularly complex dists which this thread addresses the resulting volume of brutalist formal data churned out by such auto-documenters is enough to send anyone scurrying for sanctuary. Fine for a reference no doubt, especially to those already well familiar with the dist in question, but not for the neophytes who are only after a gentle concept-based introduction.