Question: Recently, this forum has seen many questions of the *what is the single word for* type.

Is this really such a concern in English?

Single words such as obfuscate or elucidate can obfuscate as much they can elucidate.

This quest for a single word might be considered stylistically important in some languages but how important is it in English?

Answer: 
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> Is this really such a concern in English?
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> This quest for a single word might be considered stylistically important in some languages but how important is it in English?
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Why is English different from other languages? The difference is not the language but why you need a single word for a certain concept.

Getting a single word is often good in terms of Linguistic Economy (usually languages seek that), and if there's a case where you need one word (for a title, a website, etc) then yes, it's important. There must be other reasons certainly, I must have forgotten something.
I have asked questions like this before, and for me the motivation is to achieve a level of precision, not necessarily conciseness. To me, the question "is there a word for..." is really an open query on established terminology for specific concepts. If there isn't any, then of course the English language is quite easily able to convey even the most complex ideas effectively. That can be achieved by layering concepts on each other until the overall ideas are communicated, but if there is already a word or phrase that communicates the idea, why would I want to go to the trouble to express it in another way unless I had a specific reason to do so?