The following admonition by the English divine Richard Hooker to his Puritan opponents could as easily be applied to people today who give ignorant advice about prose style:

Let the vulgar sort amongst you know, that there is not the least branch of the cause wherein they are so resolute, but to the trial of it a great deal more appertaineth than their conceit doth reach unto.

Proponents of the CBS (Clarity, Brevity, and Sincerity) theory of style bear no small resemblance to Puritans in that they too are loud, supremely confident in their positions, and superlatively ignorant of that about which they hector.

I do think Clarity in writing is important, but where I differ with a lot of writing teachers is that I believe virtuosity is the prerequisite of clarity; you can’t be even a competent craftsman if you don’t know how all your tools work, and similarly, it is very difficult to write clearly when you don’t know the meaning of the words and clause structures you are using. You can write formulaically, sure, but not clearly.

Addendum: People who lack facility with language are the least competent judges of clarity. You might as well show Titian to a blind man. “Is that clear to you?” Of course not: he’s blind.