Mar 5, 2021
I think the key word here is "balance". If you've used "several" or "many" in a sentence already then, why not use "a number of" or a "a great deal of", or "plenty of" to avoid repetition? I get where you two are coming from in regards to filler words. But at the same time, we don't want to fall into the other trap: needless repetition. :-)