Downside: way too many comments on obvious statements, such as above the require...s

And a style note re posting here:

"added some hard-returns above ... so that the lines wouldn't wrap here, to make it easier to read."

Good intent but not a good idea: May or may not, depending on the viewer's mindset, make it easier to read, but it makes any testing the visitor might wish to do go badly, at a minimum because the line numbers may be different than your originals... and it may even obfuscate your understanding or intentions.