All the more reason to use functions: loops at global scope have terrible performance, but loops in a function have amazing performance. The more data you’re working with, the more this will matter.
But it’s also worth asking if those dozen arguments might lead a more productive life with a certain amount of organization into structs, Dicts, etc.
This past Wednesday I taught a lecture that describes how thinking about testability can help clarify better ways of approaching code design: https://github.com/timholy/AdvancedScientificComputing/blob/main/schedule/schedule_2021.md (see the Oct. 20 session).