Rachel,
thanks for this excellent article 😉 agree with all of your points, nice reminders 🙂

I also find that screenshots with clear visual highlights and annotations can really help beginners understand the connections between functions (in software) or code snippets in relation to the final result. This does, of course, depend on the subject and the reader. Visual hints and explanation often help those who are stronger in design ~ whereas people whose strength lies in development might not need those as much.

PS: don’t know why I missed the redesign of your site – it looks lovely 😉