The pronoun of affair first introduces an as-yet-unexplained matter. The listener anticipates the following clause, which then discloses the important content. The resulting progression from anticipation to explanation can convey magnification of the subject matter.
The rhetorical effect arises from the ordering and the context, not merely from the presence of a pronominal form. A mundane context does not necessarily yield the same intensity.
It is especially important not to search for a previously named individual as the antecedent of every pronoun of affair: its explanatory content is typically the following clause itself.