Ehh I disagree with point number 2. I've been writing a big app in Erlang lately and SA has actually made my program longer. i.e.

  rec(Lst) ->
    case Cond of
      pattern1 ->
        rec(Lst);
      pattern2 ->
        Lst2 = ...
        rec(Lst2);
    ...

I'd like to rebind Lst in pattern2's clause and then just call rec(Lst) at the end of the case. (Of course there can be many more than 2 clauses and all the rec/1 calls really add up.)