What I am asking here if readability plays a factor in ranking for specific keywords? Because specific keywords demand a specific audience? Maybe if you raise the level of your content, it hurts more than helps?

Some more interesting data.

So I took a competitor's blog post in Wordpress and did a scan on it. It said, of his content:

The copy scores 51.6 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered fairly difficult to read. Try to make shorter sentences to improve readability.

Yet, according to Google, it says about the page's content:

Basic: 0%
Intermediate: 100%
Advanced: 0%

So, although reports by Flesch Reading Ease say it is "difficult to read", Google sees it as intermediate.

Now, I will compare a post I wrote a few weeks ago.. 1,116 words compared to 500. Plus, no backlinks to my own site which his had 5 within the same article. Not that it matters, just saying. Anyway...

The copy scores 60.6 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered OK to read.

So "OK" vs. "fairly difficult" to read, yet Google scans my page as follows:

Basic 18%
Intermediate 76%
Advanced 6%

If I lowered my standards, dropped my advanced level and pushed more towards intermediate, would it help me?

While these tests give some interesting data IMHO without knowing 'time on page' and 'bounce rate' you really don't have the beginnings of a general capture of what's going on.

Further complicating this is the eduction level of those viewing and if the page has all the information they seek (vs links to authority sites).