I wonder if you got things fully figured out. What "verbosity" are you talking about: (1) words in non-source sections or (2) code in source blocks? The code in source blocks is basically identical to code you would have in a normal source file. As far as words outside source blocks, I think org-mode is cleaner than other software that tries to do similar things, e.g., most LaTeX markup is not present in the org document itself, instead it's added automatically when exported. Also, various parts of the document can be entirely collapsed from view, expanded only when needed.
In any case, the idea is not to "read" the org file itself, the "literate" part of things comes about from (1) "tangling" embedded source blocks to compilable format, and (2) exporting the org document to pdf, html or some other format that is nicely formatted for reading (or publishing, like the document that was referenced in this post).
In any case, the idea is not to "read" the org file itself, the "literate" part of things comes about from (1) "tangling" embedded source blocks to compilable format, and (2) exporting the org document to pdf, html or some other format that is nicely formatted for reading (or publishing, like the document that was referenced in this post).