Clear communication prevents imagination from filling gaps with unnecessary damage.

Ambiguity does not stay empty. Given a gap, people fill it, and they rarely fill it with something generous, because uncertainty tends to recruit the worst plausible explanation. Vagueness intended to be kind frequently produces more harm than a plain statement would have.

When you are being unclear to spare someone, ask what they are likely to conclude in the absence of information. Then say the clearer thing. Explicitness feels harsher in the moment and it is usually gentler in effect, because it leaves nothing for their imagination to build on.