The framing shift that helps: instead of "how do I get users to read setup docs," ask "what would it take to have no setup docs at all." Usually ends up being a better product anyway.
Agreed; I don't think "Not X, but Y" is a reliable tell on its own, but taken as a whole TFA set off my AI writing spidey-sense big time. The intro takes three paragraphs of fluff (ironically) to say "My product used to have long docs, but after using a product with much shorter docs it made me reconsider my approach."
I suspect there's two big parts to this:
1. Users expect batteries included and that everything "just works" the first time.
2. The language you used differs match your audience. E.g they search "gray" and find no results, however you've spelt it "grey"
Assuming this was written by a human, I think it is time to retire saying “this is not x it is y”.
The moment I see that I think the text is AI generated and I lose interest.
is annoying.