O that more writers would rediscover the format of the inverted pyramid (think news stories, lead first).
Instead so many are following the format of: dump to paper the entire warm-up process. This warm-up is often necessary. It's fine to even write it in your first draft. Before publication, excise the long intro.
(That said, I agree that introductions in a more magazine-style story can ramble and can benefit from having all the "throat clearing"--as an editor of mine used to call it--being cut or pared down significantly.)
That said, the purpose of a piece of writing isn't necessarily to communicate a list of increasingly less important facts--which is what fits best with inverted pyramid. Different people have different preferences. I'm not necessarily writing things to maximize eyeballs on the first and second paragraph.
Have you ever noticed that working on an ultra-cool product that goes bust won't cut you any slack. You get more credits for minor contributions to known brands than massive contributions to busted products.
Your skills are tied to your product's PR (apparently).
Again Theranos is unique: The product they served may have costed customers dearly either financially or worse.