To me, there is much good advice here but also some that is dubious.

I fully support the choice of strong and direct description but the examples you give are not appropriate examples:

"greedily" is not the equivalent of "devoured."

* Crying softly is not the equivalent of whimpering.

* A big house *may* be a mansion but it is not necessarily such.

* A tall building *may be* a skyscraper but it is not necessarily such.

... and etc.

I agree that the passive voice is often used where the active voice would be preferable for its strength and its 'ownership' of the activity. I'd suggest that this has perhaps come about because of it being so ubiquitous in verbal expression. There are still places where the passive voice is more appropriate, therefore the use of it should not necessarily be rejected. It is problematic to imply that the words, "There was" always indicate an inappropriately passive phrase, particular when one of the examples given confuses past and present tense.

What you refer to as "filler words" need not be such.

Often they are necessary or valid either for grammatical correctness or for particular emphasis. "Just" provides an emphasis that alters meaning. I agree that it can be used indiscriminately but that is not indicative of it not "serving a purpose" but rather one of careless writing, a failure to proof read and/or lack of understanding of nuance in language. That is not to deny your advice to avoid using such words unnecessarily.

A thesaurus is a valuable tool. Too often even those for whom words are their stock in trade, let down both themselves and their readers by using them incorrectly. Certainly, simple, concise and unpretentious language are to be preferred. However, a rich vocabulary that provides nuance is to be relished rather than demeaned. "Clarity" is achieved not just by simplicity and conciseness but also by well chosen words. For instance, 'start' or 'beginning' do not need to be replaced by the crude and nonsensical "get-go."

"Like music, beautiful writing has a cadence to it." Yes, I agree. Most writing, of course, is not beautiful but functional. Beautiful writing certainly enriches experience but functional writing is just as important.

My view is that we need to be extremely wary of making definitive statements about how to write, particularly when so many who ought to write well, often write very poorly.