“Breaking it down” and “shallow” sound similar, but they’re seeing different things
“Clear” people are the ones who build a “staircase” so the other person can reach their destination, while “shallow-looking” people are the ones who show only the “first step” of the staircase they have and end up being satisfied with that. In other words, it’s assumed that they have some depth of understanding of the background—but on top of that, you can see how far they break things down and deliver them to the other person: those who do so are “clear,” and those who don’t reveal the thickness of the background or the inner conflicts tend to lean “shallow.”