That the most experienced devs say this the most might not be just about status games. You need to have a very solid shared background to be able to jump to und

That the most experienced devs say this the most might not be just about status games. You need to have a very solid shared background to be able to jump to understanding something after the sort of short verbal explanation "I don't understand" can be replied with. If I go to an university lecture on advanced math, I won't understand things, and can say so. But it's unlikely the lecturer can say anything in the span of five minutes that will make me understand, since what would actually get me close to understanding the content of that lecture are several semesters worth of studies leading up to it. The senior devs might be the only people on the room who do have such a solid grasp of their stuff that they can fill in their understanding with just a few minutes of explanation. Junior people don't understand either, but they might need to work over the new thing for hours, not five minutes, to get a proper handle on it, and you can't give an hours-long answer to someone who says they don't understand.