The writer’s confidence should not depend on the reader being too embarrassed to ask.

Some difficulty is real and some is manufactured. Writing that leans on jargon and tangled construction can look authoritative while relying on the reader’s reluctance to admit confusion, and that reluctance is doing the work the argument should be doing. Clear prose carries more risk, because a plain sentence can be checked. Obscurity protects the writer and taxes everyone else.

If you write anything for others, read it as someone arriving fresh and mark every sentence that survives only on trust. When you are the reader, ask the question, since you are rarely the only one lost.