“This isn’t a meeting about the budget per se”
“This isn’t exactly a meeting about the budget”
If you finish those sentences, it becomes clear why per se is used:
“This isn’t a meeting about the budget per se, it’s a meeting about how much of the budget is spent on bits of string”
“This isn’t exactly a meeting about the budget, it’s a meeting about how much of the budget is spent on bits of string”
In this situation, using per se provides a more natural sentence flow because it links the first part of the sentence with the second. It’s also shorter and fewer syllables.
“Steve’s quite erudite.”
“Steve’s quite intellectual.”
I think intellectual might be a closer synonym, but intellectual often has more know-it-all connotations than erudite which seems to often refer to a more pure and cerebral quality.
“Tom and Jerry is a fun cartoon because of the juxtaposition of the relationship between cat and mouse.”
“Tom and Jerry is a fun cartoon because of the side by side oppositeness of the relationship between cat and mouse that is displayed”
For those to say precisely the same thing it would have to be more like the above which doesn’t really roll off the tongue.
“I don’t understand, can you elucidate that?”
“I don’t understand, can you explain?”
Elucidate just means to make something clear in general, explaining something usually inherently implies a linguistic, verbal, explanation, unless otherwise stated.
Honestly, these all seem like very reasonable words to me for the most part. I can understand not using them in some contexts, but for the most part, words exist for a reason, to describe something slightly differently, and it takes forever to talk and communicate if we only limit ourselves to the most basic unnuanced terms.
The difference is that Uber’s model of using an app to show you the route, give driver feedback, be able to report problems and monitor and track the driver, etc. is actually a huge improvement to both rider safety and experience compared to calling a cab company and then waiting who knows how long for someone to show up and hopefully bring you where you want to go.
Not saying that their model of gig workers, or dodging up front training is good, but they legitimately offered up a fundamentally better taxi experience than anything that came before, which I think encouraged regulators to really drag their feet on looking into them.