Yes, agreed with the second part. >"Why do mathematicians continue to proffer and accept this courtesy, when it increases their own mental load and makes their

Yes, agreed with the second part. >"Why do mathematicians continue to proffer and accept this courtesy, when it increases their own mental load and makes their own work more opaque?" (the OP) // I imagine because it doesn't increase their mental load? It might even reduce it; abstraction is a principle component of the field after all. Using descriptive names sounds like it requires a half-arsed disabstraction, a series of munged verbose partial truths? Naming for authors is partially self-documenting too, though practically that's probably not often useful.