It does not matter how clear your book is, if it's boring to read people won't want to read it. WotC needs to decide who their target audience is and write for them, and everyone is not a target audience.
There is a lot tied up in this question actually. Clarity, authorial voice, perception, accessibility. For instance how many kids put down the game down back in the day because it wasn't as accessible versus how many latched onto it because it was a challenge, something meant for someone older. How many kids get into something because it's accessible and inoffensive to the whole family, versus how many because of a hint of the forbidden , something mom might not entirely approve of. Do people want to read a cold, technical voice, a rambling authority making pronouncements from on high, ornate purple prose, something very formal, or something that addresses the reader like they're the only one there, something conversational, et c.
Personally, I enjoy the 2e core books writing style more than any other edition, and I've read at least bits and pieces of most of them. I thought it was clear without being sterile and that it affected a friendly, helpful tone without being patronizing. 0e is darn near incomprehensible in places, a lot of the stuff put out for the various versions of basic is workman like and gets the job done, 1e is rambling and painful to read to me (I realize that is an unpopular opinion in some circles), 3e was okay, but nothing exciting, and 4e is mind-numbing and dry.