Rhetorical effect of nominals

I'm reading a book by A.J. Liebling called Between Meals. Liebling uses nominals pretty often. They usually contribute to the humor of his writing. "Mens sana in corpore sano is a contradiction in terms, the fantasy of a Mr. Have-your-cake-and-eat-it." The nominal here of course is "contradiction" a noun made out of the verb "to contradict." By making the verb a noun it enhances the strength of the writing. Rather than saying this idea contradicts something, he instead chooses to argue that this idea is, in fact, the very embodiment of what it is to contradict. A contradiction.
Liebling also uses nominals for stylistic reasons. "It was not an epic battle. Mascart advanced behind the top of his head surrounded by the cage, but when he pulled a bar out of the cage to strike, Brown would insert a long left into the vacancy left by the displacement." The choice of using "displacement" as a noun trims down the writing. Earlier Liebling explained "the cage" as a style of fighting. One uses the top of his/her head and forearms to create a cage around the vitals where you want to avoid getting hit. By removing an arm from the cage to attack, Mascart opens himself up to attack. The sentence would not flow as smoothly if Liebling had written "Brown would insert a long left into the vacancy left by Mascart displacing his arm from the defensive formation." By writing "the displacement," his sentence is more artistic, and has a better flow.