There are too many people who will respond to a thoughtful article with "well, it doesn't apply in this scenario, therefore it's dumb" so by putting the target audience out front the author can say "yes, it's not for you."
I started doing the same in my conference presentations a few years back. It's useful to see a few people nodding their heads to know I'm on target before I get into the meat of the content. And if someone realizes it's not a match for them and leaves (quietly), no harm, no foul.