Yes, that is definitely simpler, although the formula is more esoteric. At least, for me, it triggers the "I was taught this in school and haven't used it since" filter.
You're right that in general any such example can be refactored to reduce stack operations. That's even a fun game for many Forth programmers to play. (We lispers have our own equivalents.) But it usually makes the code less comprehensible, in my experience.