I have not much to add to Tom's answer. It sums everything up pretty well.
"Editors" are obscuring my links, which is against my policy of obscuring links
Nobody's deliberately obscuring your links. If I go ahead and shorten all your links with goo.gl or bit.ly, that's obscuring.
The web is full of dead links, how does having the full link visable without hover assist users
Give your readers context. If you link to an article that has the title "Foo Barring the Baz – Tips and Tricks", but the link itself is just http://awsumsite.com/post/10293176, giving the link a proper title gives the user some context about what to search, even if the link goes dead.
Well. It also makes the whole thing look better too
This is the whole point. Try to sell your answer. Make it pleasant to look at. It's not only about the content, it's also about how it looks. For example here:
First revision:
Last revision:
Which one visually looks "better"?
I know we've talked on chat and that you weren't against my edits, and I really think you're contributing very well to the site. Keep it going and just think of your readers – give them something they can easily read.