Directness is frowned upon in almost all social situations and conversations. There's this notion that being subtle about what you really mean or by weaving it between the lines softens the blow of whatever you're talking about and makes you look sophisticated. I've personally heard people commenting about the lack of someone's subtlety as a major shortcoming.

This pretentious obsession only leads to more ambiguity and slows down the transfer of information. Implying that I think you've put on weight instead of telling you directly makes little or no difference.

This obsession exists only to stoke the egos and ease the guilt of the party delivering the message and reeks of cowardice and disrespect. This is exacerbated by dialogue in film and books where subtext is lauded as some kind of a genius tool to make said works more interesting, when it just makes it superfluous and extremely pretentious.