Well, it probably works as a status-raising trick, "if you are sufficiently smart, you ought to know what I meant".

What the? That is a candidate for the most dumbfounding accusation of "status-raising trick" that I have ever seen. Most people would understand the kind of reasons why gwern is providing an on topic quote to the thread. That being the case gwern would not anticipating raising his status via refraining from stating the obvious (or at least what is believed to be obvious).

There is no trick here. Just a projection of personal confusion onto the intention of another.