It can feel like that, though I’m sure it’s (mostly) not deliberate. Also the sudden jump from straightforward to incomprehensible, accompanied by a comment from the author along the lines of “well duh”

All maths papers are like this

I remember reading that the transporter was added to TOS mainly to speed up storytelling, with the technobabble behind it being expanded on later. Then replicators/holodeck put in TNG because it made sense based on similar technology. So basically you’re exactly right, it is magic

Reminds me of this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford’s_law