Figured I'd add a few tidbits to the discussion I started....

1) It does occur to me that in the old days of slower processors and less RAM, the argument would have been made that using a basic math operation (+0 or double-minus) would process faster than calling a function.

2) to sum a column of text values, I was able to use sum(--range) and then pressing ctrl-shift-enter to make it an array function. very slick. sure beats having to insert a column, add and copy down a formula to convert the value and then sum it. (sum(value(range)) works as an array function too)

3) my only rebuttal to Palmetto's comment of: "Why would you give users the privilege of editing your formula if they don't understand it?" is that as an accountant with a bunch of basic level spreadsheets that rarely use advanced functions, I'd rather that my successors be able to easily interpret what I was doing. accountants tend to reuse the same spreadsheets for consistency so the risk is high that in the future someone other than myself will have to interpret the guts of the computations.
of course the rebuttal to my rebuttal is that spreadsheets can have comments added, so if in doubt, use the better solution and add a comment to explain what's happening if there doubt about a successor won't understand a formula.