The entertaining thing is I found out I know the guy who did the last set of reports I have as examples. Suddenly all the little stylistic idiosyncrasies make perfect sense. Plus I no longer feel like I have to emulate his report structure, which is nice - I was planning to deviate anyway because I don't care much for the style in which it was organized, but now I know why.
It isn't an issue of competence either - which is cool. Just style. (As an aside, thank the stars I'm not a revenue officer. Or perhaps, now I know why I'm not a revenue officer...)