Complexity can impress people while preventing them from noticing whether anything works.

Complexity can function as a screen. When something is hard to follow, people default to assuming there is substance behind it, and they cannot ask the obvious question about whether it works because they cannot see it clearly enough to ask. That protection is sometimes deliberate and often unconscious. Either way it delays the moment of evaluation.

When you cannot follow an explanation, ask for the simple version rather than assuming the failure is yours. If it cannot be given, that is informative. And check your own work for the same screen.