It is curious that some readers are dismissive of wordplay in haiku using terms like 'gimmicky', 'cleverness', 'showiness' etc. Doubtless there may be a temptation to wordplay for its own sake rather than as an invaluable technique to obtain richer meaning and resonance.
I think that it was Yeats who mentioned somewhere that the richness of some poems are obtained by the poet seeking a fitting rhyme. In a form as brief as haiku, I think that richness may be obtained by making word choices that set up vibrations relevant to the heartbeat of the haiku.
As Basho may be regarded as the 'prime mover' of haiku expression I think it best to refer back to his practice and the difficulty in translating him effectively as he wrote. A good example on which to develop this line is the final hokku of his brilliant Oku no Hosomichi that is introduced by the following prose -"Despite my travel weariness, I set out on the sixth day of the ninth month to witness the rebuilding of the Great Shrine at Ise. As I stepped again into a boat, I wrote:
hamaguri no futami ni wakare yuku aki zo"
literally the hokku reads in English as something like
"of clam(shells) divided into Futami(shell and body) autumn to go"
David Barnhill writes "Futami, literally “two views,” is the area around the Great Shrine at Ise, known for clams and for the Wedded Rocks: two boulders in the sea tied together with a huge rope. Futa also means a lid (in this case, of a clam), while mi can mean both “see” and “flesh”; futa mi ni wakareru means to divide the clam meat from the shell."
The Japanese reader would have got that wordplay but it is lost in translation despite it being at the heart of the hokku's existence. How can the translator bring out the wordplay intrinsic in “futami”, which is the name of the bay the poet is departing for as well as being portmanteau word incorporating shell and body. Then there is the phrase “wakare-yuku” which clearly refers to the separation of a clam flesh from its shell, the departure of the poet, and to the passing of autumn. The passing of autumn is a clear and deliberate echo of spring's ending in one of the first hokku of Oku no Hosomichi.
Basho clearly intended this wordplay growing purely out of the reality of what was actually transpiring bringing together all the strands at play at that moment and the depth of feeling present in it. Translation cannot adequately bring out the geography and significance of a real place and the drama being played out between Basho and his disciples as Autumn ends.
Like it or not, wordplay is an invaluable technique for widening the resonances of a haiku.