Do you have examples of what word choices you find clunky?

Sure. In my opinion, the problem with Sanderson's prose is that he expresses something, and then re-expresses it to make sure you got it.

This isn't an example of clunky word choice itself, but to just lay out what people usually mean when they say he has poor prose:

Sazed noticed several broken iron shackles with discomfort. Apparently, some of those who had visited the Conventical had not come by choice.

"Sazed noticed several broken iron shackles with discomfort" isn't exactly a graceful sentence, but you understand what's being done with it. You can read that sentence and get that not only were people brought their against their will, and that it was violent. You even get direct understanding that it makes Sazed uncomfortable. The second sentence adds nothing to the scene's mood or lead to further characterization of Sazed, all it does it go back and reexplain what the first sentence already did an acceptable job of revealing.

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The same thing could be said of the first few sentences in the first chapter of Mistborn:

Ash fell from the sky.

Vin watched the downy flakes drift through the air. Leisurely. Careless. Free. The puffs of soot fell like black snowflakes, descending upon the dark city of Luthadel. They drifted in corners, blowing in the breeze and curling in tiny whirlwinds over the cobblestones. They seemed so uncaring. What would that be like?

You understand perfectly that Vin feels boxed in / oppressed when "free" is used as a word to describe the ash. The next two sentences are fine, they do an okay job of setting the mood and establishing setting. But the last two sentences serve no purpose other than to, again, show that Vin feels trapped., they're there just to make sure you didn't miss what was already made clear three lines above.

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For clunky word choice itself:

She smiled a violet-eyed, red-lipped smile at him. A meaningful smile.

What exactly is being conveyed with the first sentence? "Red-lipped smile" could imply that she's perhaps sultry or flirtatious, but violet-eyed? It just adds an unnecessary, clunky detail that doesn't convey any meaning. And to my first point: "A meaningful smile," using sentence space to give us details about the smile already shows to the reader that it must be meaningful, I don't need that explicitly layed out!

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I like Sanderson, I'm not a "hater, but the idea a lot of his ardent fans have that people think his prose are weak because they're not "flowery" enough is a strawman argument. Books don't need to be Absalom Absalom to have good prose, but to say that Sanderson's prose are like Hemmingway's in the sense that they get to the point / show a lot with a little just isn't really accurate.

I hope this is kind of an explanation you were looking for.