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It's also a fallacy that you can figure the rarer words out from context. For example, many people who claim to be able to guess the difference in usage of comprise vs compose get it wrong, which is why it often gets an entry in grammar reference books.
This also means working under an assumption that the author either knows full well what the word means or didn't decide to use a word differently from normal out of a sense of poetic license or prosody (which may or may not mean the same thing depending on what the author decides to play with). Even with editors and professional writers, there could also be mistakes. Everyone is human.
A word could also have multiple meanings and maybe you know or can guess one definition of the word but not the other, making it so you miss the pun (for me, finding these things helps reinforce that authors really care about their writing, and I'm getting my money's worth). I also get a kick out of sometimes knowing how to use a word in its most precise sense. It's like having a really sharp knife versus one that's honed by guess work.
I'm not saying I look up every unfamiliar word I see. I'm probably as lazy as the next person. It is, however, something I enjoy doing.
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