I would agree that "close match" isn't a lot better, but the style in science papers is to say something like "A is a close match for B (r=.85)", where of cours

I would agree that "close match" isn't a lot better, but the style in science papers is to say something like "A is a close match for B (r=.85)", where of course the precise value of metric and whether that is a close match or a terrible fit is specific to the field it's being published in. But the "very" really does add nothing. The other reason is probably that "very" is very easy to detect in a bash script, whereas looking for other, more subtle weasels is a lot harder. Given the generally poor level of scientific writing (I have certainly given my PhD advisor some turds), huge improvements can be had by just going after the easiest cases.