... are hard to parse (does "in and of itself" correspond to a common word in German?).

See the translation by muflax, "an sich" is what I am looking for. The best translations I could find are the following:

in and of itself, as such, intrinsically, per se

None of the above really express the German connotation though. I'll see what I can do.

I really wish you would try and write in a plain and terse way, avoiding fancy words and constructions

I didn't do it on purpose. I will try to express myself in as simple terms as possible in future.