I like onion peeling but what about those of us who want you to get to the point -

Yeah there seem to be this tension between people who advise to keep things as short as possible and those who recommend "selling" a message/piece of information as a captivating story.

However, it seems to me as if the story tellers usually win, even if they take more of the listeners'/readers' time.

On the other hand, one could argue that Seth Godin (mentioned in the tex) actually does both at the same time.