It is quite a risky tactic to confront a bureaucracy with an "absolutely no one will take this seriously" attitude.
Particularly stuff like this, they are demarcating an in-group and an out group. The primary reason people come up with this sort of silly list of magic words is to start discriminating against the out-group.
I definitely see your point and believe this happens often. In this particular instance, I believe adherence to this list will end up being a mark of shame even in academic circles. Using some of these terms is so brainless that people can tell who mindlessly follows bullshit like this.
It's not that I'm dismissing the possibility of sinister cultural signifiers. It's just this one attempt to establish them inorganically seems to me like it will obviously fail.
Particularly stuff like this, they are demarcating an in-group and an out group. The primary reason people come up with this sort of silly list of magic words is to start discriminating against the out-group.