It's honestly weird and annoying and I'd give it up in a second.
There's two issues:
- I don't have an ear for what's simple vocabulary versus tryhard, I go into a mad loop when I try
- even if I actively notice it, substitution can seem very far away from intent. Simple wouldn't have occurred to me - I wanted to say something more akin to sloppy / stunt and ersatz is much closer to "hacky" in meaning than simple. Think MacGyver.
But I should do the exercise of at least scanning for words more often and aim for wider audience - I would have known ersatz was an outlier and I shouldn't feel it's condescending or diluting meaning, it's broadening the audience who can parse it
There's two issues:
- I don't have an ear for what's simple vocabulary versus tryhard, I go into a mad loop when I try
- even if I actively notice it, substitution can seem very far away from intent. Simple wouldn't have occurred to me - I wanted to say something more akin to sloppy / stunt and ersatz is much closer to "hacky" in meaning than simple. Think MacGyver.
But I should do the exercise of at least scanning for words more often and aim for wider audience - I would have known ersatz was an outlier and I shouldn't feel it's condescending or diluting meaning, it's broadening the audience who can parse it