Yes you've nailed it. The P&V translations respect the way Russians construct thoughts and sentences, even if it differs from the way English speakers typically do so. This is (in my opinion) very important for showing the reader what the writer is really trying to say, and also getting the feeling that you are really immersed in the Russian culture while you're reading the book.
it's good to hear that my impressions weren't based on nothing. personally i don't like when a translation works like this, I think it's better to try to replicate the literary effect in the target language. (For example I really enjoyed Emily Wilson's choice to do her Homer translations in blank verse, as the analogue in the English poetry tradition to dactylic hexameter, rather than trying to write English in Greek meter.)
but I guess it's a valid choice and might actually be better in certain contexts (plausibly this is true for a university class about Russia and Russian literature).
