I'm just speaking from personal experience, and ime I've never seen it done in a way that didn't read as being horribly lazy. I believe you when you say you can do it and do it well because I have no reason not to, and that's fine, but I've never seen it.

For example, what I said in the comment upthread about people not going into detail about a way a character develops or grows from the start of their canon to their canon point. You say that you include that in your list apps, and that's perfect. That's exactly what I'm looking for. However, as far as my own playerbase is concerned, the people who have given me list apps have never done that. It has literally just been a list of traits with a brief reference back to a canon event that means nothing to me if I'm canonblind. I want the hows and whys in addition to the whos and whats.

To be clear, I don't want it specifically to be an essay. It's just that I've never gotten what I've wanted out of an app that wasn't one. That doesn't mean I never will. I just haven't so far.