Gauss QQC

Quote:

In his Disquisitiones Gauss also created the modern rigorous approach to mathematics. He had become impatient with the loose writing and sloppy proofs of his predecessors, and resolved that his own works would be beyond criticism in this respect. As he wrote to a friend, 'I mean the word proof not in the sense of the lawyers, who set two half-proofs equal to a whole one, but in the sense of the mathematician where 1/2 proof=0 and it is demanded for proof that every doubt becomes impossible.' The Disquisitiones is composed in this spirit and in Gauss's mature style, which is terse, rigid, devoid of motivation, and in many places so carefully polished that it is almost unintelligible.

Question:
It does seem a waste to have a work so polished that it is not easy to understand, especially when you are writing for your work to be read and understood by others (unlike Newton, who purposefully wrote in a difficult style). Why would anyone spend hours and hours of their time to be as terse as possible, especially when it is not required that one be extremely terse?

Comment: I thought that it was interesting to read about Gauss, and how he was such a brilliant mathematician. One wonders though, how when one can be so brilliant, and yet fail to let the public be aware of your ideas, how ultimately brilliant you are.... His feat at age three of spotting a mistake in the bookkeeping is definitely the mark of an extremely smart and intelligent person. I especially like his point of how, in math, 1/2 proof + 1/2 proof = 0, or simply does not equal anything of meaning, which makes especially clear the importance of having a well-grounded math foundation and understanding that all the steps are necessary when solving a problem.