[MathMonkeyMan]

The author seems to value direct, polished prose. Surely some academic writing is direct and polished, but most of it isn't.

Writing an academic paper is the existential obligation of its authors. There's something in there that you want to get across to somebody, but the rest of it be damned. I'd expect the quality of the prose to be a low priority, not unlike in much developer documentation, school book reports, speeches, and other writing that is mostly filler to meet an obligation.