Not in C no, since arithmetic on a pointer is implicitly scaled by the size of the value being pointed at (this statement is kind of breaking the abstraction ... oh well).

Nope, a[b] is equivalent to *(a + b) regardless of a and b.

Given that, why don't we use just `*(a + b)` everywhere?

Wouldn't that be more verbose and less confusing? (genuinely asking)

Do you really think that `*(a + i)` is clearer than `a[i]`?

Not necessarily. I think it's confusing when there are two fairly close ways to express the same thing.