[KineticLensman]

> the writers don't want to repeat themselves because they were taught that it's "poor writing."

Yes! As you say, it massively depends on whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction. In any sort of formal document, especially technical reports, etc, the reader should never have to spend time working out what the author means. I used to be a doc reviewer in a previous life, and lost count of the number of times docs used different terms to mean the same thing, especially where multiple authors were involved, or a single author was writing different sections at different times.

General plea: If you value your readers, please, please get someone else to check a doc to look for these sorts of problems. If multiple authors are involved, always get someone on the team (a lead author?) to do this check even before submitting it for formal review.