Like I said below, I agree with Danno's diagnosis more than yours, but you've definitely got a point with the "intimidation" thing; I've seen the same done in other contexts with relatively-elementary math, and of course the same has been done with more advanced math in economics and finance (e.g. Goldman-Sachs writing up schemes only they can decipher, and Alan Greenspan, so I've read, deliberately turning economics into Latin Mass).