Is a single formula better than intermediate calculations?

I've used Excel for a while, but I am new to forums.

What's been a real eye-opener for me is that the solutions posted are not the way I would have approached the problem in the past.

I come from a (procedural) programming background, where we perform operations step by step. I tend to use intermediate calculation columns, with only 1 or 2 calculations per formula, or, failing that, use a UDF. I find this easier to debug and maintain.

The solutions I see tend to give the result in one formula. This reminds me of the functional progamming languages I used years ago.

I'd like your opinions on what is best-practice, or common practice, in relation to constructing formulas, so that I can improve my development.