In a specific case, I'm willing to listen to referees who think otherwise. Drafts submitted for external review should be in finished form, with references fully supplied and checked for accuracy, along with grammar and spelling. The job of a referee is to weigh conceptualization, argumentation, and control of the scholarly apparatus, not to do basic proofreading or give a crash course in English composition. As a theoretician, I will defend the use of abstract terminology to pin down a concept. It has been my experience, though, that the most compelling and provocative scholarly discussions, those that forced me to rethink my assumptions, were always framed in straightforward, engaging prose.
Many referees have an absolute horror of jargon.
On the other hand, a little wit, judiciously inserted, brightens everyone's day. See also Guidelines for Contributors .