As a PhD student it's embarrassing, but I still find journal articles intimidating. Something to overcome, surely. But the more I read, the angrier I get, because it shouldn't be like this.
Like, I'm a smart guy. I actually understand the topics I'm studying pretty well already. I learned by hands-on experience, pop sci books / articles, and thinking. But when I encounter familiar ideas in a journal, it's like they're written in code! The ideas aren't hard for me, they're just obscured by arcane jargon and math.
This style of writing is both lazy and disrespectful. Technical language is often necessary in science, but it comes with a responsibility to help the reader understand.
I realize scientists mostly write for each other, but where do you think new scientists come from? If we don't make an effort to invite people into our world, then we're keeping them out, making science an elitist domain where only the privileged few may enter. That's deeply harmful to society, and to science!