Thanks for the response! I hear what you're saying, and I apologize for my joke. I re-read your essay, and what you say about needing sophistication reminds me

Thanks for the response! I hear what you're saying, and I apologize for my joke. I re-read your essay, and what you say about needing sophistication reminds me of the concept of proof-of-work -- "sophistication" could be a way to convey that effort was spent by a writer, even if it doesn't add meaning. That is kind of inherently annoying, because it implies a lack of trust between the author and reader, and in the thesaurus example, the reader would be rightfully annoyed to spent time parsing a sentence only to find that the "proof of effort" was actually just a "facade of effort".