I think that's just a matter of syntax habits, presumably because you're already familiar with C++ syntax. The syntax in your example is especially "cryptic" simply because it's an FFI signature (of a function that's not written in Zig and doesn't use the normal Zig data representations).
Tbh syntax-wise Zig feels more cryptic[1] at first than C++.
[1] e.g. `extern "user32" fn MessageBoxA(?win.HWND, [*:0]const u8, [*:0]const u8, u32) callconv(win.WINAPI) i32;` from https://ziglang.org/learn/samples/