The question probably comes down to how accessible a paper should be. Personally, I think a reasonable bar is something like: a third-year PhD student in your broad area should be able to skim the paper and say a couple of paragraphs about what's happening and why it matters, and upon reading the paper more closely, present it in a seminar and defend it at least a couple of questions deep. IMO, most papers are not at this level, and are instead pitched at actual experts.
I think my point (and TFA's point as well) is that going from an experts-only paper to a seminar-ready one is actually not a ton of text. It might increase a paper's length by 5%. It's not about making everything longer, but adding enough context and signposting that the story can be followed at multiple levels, from the 5-minute pitch you'd get at a poster session to the every-detail one the author has. So I think we can have a paper that both the grad students and experts like.
I think doing this takes some skill and effort, which is well within the reach of most of the people who can write these papers, but way less effort is expended on this non-technical aspect.