Yes! Thank you!

Personage can also mean “a dramatic, fictional, or historical character.” Its least-common meaning still in current use is a synonym of “person.” The rareness of this use of the word may be due to a common prejudice against longer words used when shorter words can do the job (people criticize utilize when used to mean use for the same reason).

I realize that they're not saying that I'm right to criticize the use of utilize, but even though they're accusing me of a common prejudice, this blog post still feels like a validation. After all, I'm in the technical writing business, which has a different set of rules than creative writing, in which longer words may serve a useful purpose.