“not necessarily anything substantive but a sign that you're in the club.” That’s most of what this stuff is, you hit the nail on the head. Normal people don’t

“not necessarily anything substantive but a sign that you're in the club.” That’s most of what this stuff is, you hit the nail on the head. Normal people don’t talk or write in ‘patentese.’ Some of it is just an optimal way to be extremely precise in written English, but a bunch of it is just accumulated cultural nonsense. Good point.