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: 
1. This is not recent: it has been going on since the beginning, or as long as I remember.
2. Single words no more necessary in English than in most other languages. Although needless wordiness is undesirable, needless compression can be equally bad; and excessive compression at one point usually leads to destruction or inflation at some other point.
3. These questions are generally not encouraged: experienced writers don't need or want single words except in the specific context of a longer text, at least not that often.
4. Part of this desire comes from inexperience, but another part may be typical of programmers, who abound on Stack Exchange. They are often dealing with constraints of space and length. And they are also used to operate upon single entities, such as variables and values. Computer code is discrete rather than gradual, in that it resembles a set of building blocks rather than a lump of soft clay or a growing plant, if you will allow me my little metaphor. A single word is easy to handle as a block. However, in natural or literary language, a single idea normally does not fit into a single word very well, nor should it have to.
Sometimes it can be frustrating when somebody asks for a single word, and there doesn't seem to be one. However, how can that person know that such a word doesn't exist, when there might be a perfect word hidden somewhere in the dictionary?

In other words, I don't mind when someone asks the question – although I do find it irksome when an O.P. or other passersby start criticizing suggested answers with, "But that's not one word." 

I think the questions are generally fair questions, but the O.P.'s should always be ready to accept the fact that a perfect-fit word may not exist, in which case they'll probably get a lot of "close but no cigar" suggestions. The more difficult the original question, the more near misses will probably be offered. Such answers should be received graciously rather than criticized or downvoted; some people probably spent a fair amount of time racking their brains and are simply sharing the best they could come up with.