As a writer, most people would thing that the more complex the words and grammar used, the better writer you are.

Atleast thats what I learnt at school.

But the counter intuitive fact here is that the lower the reading level, the more people it appeals to.

What is a reading level ?

Well can a kid in 3rd grade understand your writing or can only kids in 8th grade do so. Lower the better

Some of the greater writers of the past had super low reading levels

Ernest Hemingway - 4th grade reading level. Same goes for people like JK rowling and the best/most popular writers across the internet.

This also the reason why very few people actually read scientific papers.

Psychologically this is obvious because you don't have to spend too much time thinking about the vocabulary and grammar itself. Most good stories are easy to follow along.

Though I think this one is mostly obvious for most things in life. Keeping it simple always helps vs trying to complicate and convolute things.

Sadly, and interestingly, keeping it simple is harder than it seems and requires multiple rounds of edits. This is true for copy or articles that we write.

Either ways, I don't think this needs more explaining. The easier it is to understand, the more time the reader can spend on actually following the story.