I ought to admit the KJV was a step back in readability...but I was amazed to read Tyndale’s 1526 translation and see it was such plain English, although published 85 years before the KJV!
Tyndale actually sought to make it as readable and accessible as possible, the literal vernacular, while the King James was from the outset intended to be more of a literary work, fit for a king, the King’s English. Odd that it was James who set it into motion, but God does work in mysterious ways.
Tyndale’s story is very poignant, and his Bible deserves a rightful place, for his sacrifice to bring it into the world as well as those who suffered for possessing it, if nothing else. This does not detract at all in my opinion from the King James of close to a century later, which drew in large part from Tyndale.
It was not meant to be glossed over like the morning newspaper.