I agree with all you've said, although I'm not sure how "minimalist" we're talking here, or what fics the OP has encountered that they're complaining about. As I've grown as a writer, I've found that less is often more, but I agree that it's not good to write so few words that you confuse your audience. On the other hand, I don't believe in "not making the reader work for their fic". I'm a person who reads between the lines and doesn't appreciate spoon-feeding, so I expect other people to as well. It's fine if others don't like that, but that's how I roll.

But part of being a writer is finding the balance between too much information and too little, and a lot of fanfic writers don't have enough experience to know how to do that.