But in sentences like: “Could you hand me that, please?” The word “please” seems redundant, “could you” already does the job of asking nicely. That is, from my perspective as someone speaking English as a second language.
In that case, it does not materially change the content but it does change the tone to indicate you would appreciate them responding in the affirmative . Adding a “please” to a request also doesn’t make it harder to understand.
You do have a point, though. Passive voice can be a lot more wordy / harder to parse, but people often use it to be more polite sounding.
You do have a point, though. Passive voice can be a lot more wordy / harder to parse, but people often use it to be more polite sounding.