My point is not about whether this or that word is part of someone’s (active) vocabulary, ie. whether they can explain the meaning of the word if asked without checking external sources. The reason why I evoke modernist masters is that each of those words have a plain English equivalent that more or less matches the meaning of the more
abstruse one. This is usually a dead giveaway that the author felt the level of their prose would be greatly heightened by searching for a synonym of the more hipsterist variety - I know, since I have done it myself often enough, before maturing somewhat. Even if the words actually were something they use every day, I’d still argue more plain prose would be better every and which way. Obscure language a good writer does not make. Hoe often you need dictionary when reading The Sun Also Rises? Or Homage to Catalonia? Or The Bell Jar?
In short, having have to read extremely jargony and difficult to understand academic or professional text more or less daily - text that by nature sorta have to be difficult and abstract, since the subject it - the benchmark for journalistic writing should be that it can be understood by a 11-year-old. Interestingly, Borsook herself seems to recognise this, the author of this article less so.