I'm a bit confused by your use of 'pithy, but at least its terse'. Don't pithy and terse mostly mean similar things? Here it seems like you're contrasting them. Not trying to be pedantic, apologies if it comes off that way.
"Bob can be blunt but at least he's honest." Words can have positive or negative connotations for the same notion.
That's insightful! In a negative way.
Thats a good point, however, you wouldn't say "Bob can be honest, but at least he's blunt" which is I think more faithful to the initial quote. But point taken.
I think he’s saying that’s it’s dense and _too_ full of meaning. So, while terse, it can also hide extra meaning in its density.
Gnomic, then (on my mind because I saw it used yesterday, thanks flir).