[superobserver]

Your complaint about clunkiness isn't wrong. But consider the contrast of (1) stating a full phrase that preserves the symmetry between syntactical constructs with their semantic counterparts or (2) the acronymic representation thereof. Whilst (1) is always clunky, it tends to be easier to use for non-experts, whereas (2) is minimal but requires an expert-level familiarity. In essence, it is little different from the contrast between written English and written Chinese.