[jorisw]

Agree with most of what you're saying, except

> On the other hand being verbose can be tedious and even insulting (by implying a lack of familiarity with matters obvious to the reader)

Being overly clear (and perhaps verbose as a result) would only be perceived as insulting by an insecure fool. Clarity is objectively a good thing in comms.

Tedious? Sure. Very long expansions of initialisms written over and over perhaps. I have no problem with a term being expanded once before being abbreviated after.