Great piece, Katy! Nice to see a thorough treatment of this particular thing. I’m a big fan of pacing in writing, and the semicolon helps convey that in circumstances, along with its sort-of related cousins the em dash and the ellipsis. I think, in some situations you’ve identified, I actually use the em dash, and for some of the reasons you’ve identified herein about semicolons being somewhat lofty or elitist. For example, using your example, I could see myself writing: “I was hoping to meet up with some of the productions team — namely, Sharon, David, and Ayesha.” Grammar and style completely aside, there’s a concrete nature to that (the actual look of it on the page/screen) that I feel may appeal to a reader more. But, also (perhaps more importantly), I think it appeals to me more. That’s not to say I’m not a huge fan of the semis!