Free of waste is so fuzzy though. I went through a time where I tried to make my writing as concise and condensed as possible. Some of it was good, but I think when I've been given myself more freedom with extra words, I've ended up with better. Were they unnecessary words? I don't know.

But with ai's presence, I think we will see pressure on writers (at least those who want to write to be read) to shorten their work.

Hmmm. Saying that, I realize that it may only apply to internet writing (posts, articles, comments and such), novelists and other long form writing may be exempt because conveying info is not the primary goal. Something like this.