It may be about shifting from one mode to the other. It's definitely not just fiction vs. non-fiction, because I see it as a tech writer too. (It's even more confusing as a tech writer: I don't own this Standard Operating Procedure. Some guy in manufacturing owns it. And he's going to ask for changes, and those changes will be to make it better because he knows what it needs to be faaaaaaar better than I do. So why is anyone upset?)

I think it may be about ownership or distance or some other thing I can't quite put my finger on. (And I'm certainly not the best at it, but I try.)