What I think Nietzsche was after with his potatoes was that seeing a real problem as a deep philosophical one is just an excuse to leave it untouched and going on living in denial. You start with a real question then abstract stuff away until it stops making any sense and then decide there's a philosophical problem that prevents the original question from being solved. This is the main weakness of ethics in analytic tradition, while its main strength is, as you stated, clarity. My favourite author Celine expressed the very same thought as Nietzsche in more poetic words: “Philosophizing is simply one way of being afraid, a cowardly pretense that doesn't get you anywhere.”

In the old days people studying philosophy usually learned to see their personal problems either the practical ones or as pseudo-problems arising from misuse of everyday language. Nowadays even philosophers try to be useful and they withhold their skepticism: they don't want to kill the sappy personal and political wallowing because they think they might get a chance or two to say something that makes them appear needed. You might guess my attitude on this progress.