On: I give you feedback on your blog post draft but yo...

[apeescape]

I'm sure there's a sensible middleground between never using big words vs. using them only to add complexity.

[strken → apeescape]

That's absolutely true. I would like them used in an intentional way, though.

If you just slap them down anywhere then you end up with a sentence like "Obscurantist verbiage is a calling card of the intellectual qua gatekeeper, in that necessary role serving to further the creeping and not unimpenetrable calcification of human linguistic torture" and anyone who has to read your writing will wish you were dead, which is bad, or copy you, which is worse.

[dukeyukey → apeescape]

Big words are like specialist power tools - they have their place, and if you know how to use them, add a massive amount of value.

But if you don't, or if you can reasonably use simpler words, don't use the big ones.