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Better than doing this is to email the author and ask for a copy. It's their work, and they usually (maybe always?) have no financial stake in the gated access which dominates academic publishing. I've had success using this method to read papers to which I did not have access through a paid service.

I think it's an affectation more than anything else. For an educated person typing on devices with, at a minimum, autocorrect for capitalization, I think it has to be a conscious choice. The worst part of me says it is ego/arrogance played off as a casualness or being beyond triviality.