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I was going to write a longer response to this, but I think this sums it up:
Doc, are you sure you aren't mistakenly assuming that the academic writing style is an indicator of the motivations of the writers? Academics get trained to write in a fairly nit-picky way, and we are also trained to approach conversation critically. That said, most academics I know were only willing to pursue a PhD because they genuinely love what they do. Getting a PhD takes a ton of time, is a process that can at times be quite destructive of one's ego, and the job prospects in academia are generally pretty bleak.