Hi, I'm one of the authors of this piece. This is just a note to say thanks for the comments. For some context this is what we call a "preprint" (terrible term) of an article which has been submitted for peer review at a research journal. That means that we'll be able to make changes based on comments from reviews by appointed researchers as well as in response to the comments here. In particular your comments are useful in suggesting some changes in how we signpost our argument to make it clearer.
The article is in "academic-ese" and that's deliberate, if understandably irritating to a more general audience. We're targeting a specific audience, and we'll have a shorter and snappier version as well for the final version. As people here know well, the pitch has to be shaped to fit the audience and here we trying to change (a specific kind of) researchers' minds.