Good article. I've enjoyed reading it!
I agree that using big words for reasons of impression only is pretentious.
My goal has always been precision of words - to use exactly the word you mean in a given instance. Apparently, I have a relatively large vocabulary, but I also have to be careful not to lose people by using too many larger words at once. Besides, even for someone with a large vocabulary, it's not natural to use only large words! You use them meaningfully - as a well-seasoned spice. (Or something!) :-)