I agree that the binary is harder to read, but it sure is tempting to use it, especially for those control SFRs made up of somewhat unrelated bits.

;;           76543210
mov  T2CON,#001100000b;

and in my young and crazy days I had a stack of these (one premade for every SFR):

;;           TERTETCC
;;           FXCCXR!P
;;           2FLLE2T!
;;            2KKN 2R
;;               2  L
;;                  2
mov  T2CON,#076543210b;

Erik