I labeled this a nit in the hopes of avoiding this kind of deep spiral, but—“commit” is a significant intensifier that specifically implies overriding or ignoring opposing reasons beyond what would normally be expected.
“Why not sell the abbey?” is seeking countervailing reasons while implicitly framing “sell” as the default option to overcome.
”Should they commit to selling the abbey?” is seeking to ignore all possible countervailing reasons and implicitly frames “keep” as the default option which can only be overcome with an overwhelmingly strong argument.
Replacing the former with the latter is choosing a weaker opponent for the “keep” position to overcome.
This is a minor rhetorical thing that does not warrant as many words as this, but it is a real and meaningful thing.
I labeled this a nit in the hopes of avoiding this kind of deep spiral, but—“commit” is a significant intensifier that specifically implies overriding or ignoring opposing reasons beyond what would normally be expected.
“Why not sell the abbey?” is seeking countervailing reasons while implicitly framing “sell” as the default option to overcome.
”Should they commit to selling the abbey?” is seeking to ignore all possible countervailing reasons and implicitly frames “keep” as the default option which can only be overcome with an overwhelmingly strong argument.
Replacing the former with the latter is choosing a weaker opponent for the “keep” position to overcome.
This is a minor rhetorical thing that does not warrant as many words as this, but it is a real and meaningful thing.