But the joy of using asterisks is that it not only results in the reader still knowing exactly what you really said ... ("freakin’ this, fricken’ that, fecken’ the other," you’re not fooling anyone, everyone knows what you really said), but ...

1. it upsets those who, like you (and me), take offence to the pandering to the alleged sensibilities of those who aren't actually sensitive, but merely wish to be thought so by putting their affected linguistic fascism in everyone else’s mouth (which is distasteful to say the least) — so, you're actually increasing the amount of offense caused (and, more significantly, to those most deserving of being offended by virtue of their sanctimonious affectations);

2. just as I. Love. The. Way. The. Voice. In. Your. Head. Stops. After. Every. World. In. This. Subclause, I also appreciate the way they cause the reader to stop and focus on those words all the more; whereas, under the other regime, they can simply be offended by words on autopilot, now they have to stop and run through all the possibilities in their head in order to work out precisely why they should be offended — it's a double-whammy at the very least (more, if they have to cycle through a larger vocabulary in order to do so).

Sometimes, less is more 😉