This consistently antagonistic relationship between writer and reader, where the former is stringing along the latter as much as possible, is such a weird aspect of this time period.
Recipe web sites, however... padding, padding and more. Though Dickens was paid by the word, too, and it shows.
"It was a long cold night in November 2016, Tuesday, which was Taco day in the cafeteria. The suns ray appeared yellow, and trees were unable to photosynthesize ... "
Last paragraph:
"So X is now faster because of Y."
It's not a problem with attention spam of focus ability: internet gave us a HUGE choice of information, and we literally like the time to enjoy it all. Thus prioritising is fundamental.
Long read are perfectly fine and can be wonderful, provided I know fast enough whether it will be worth my time.
However, I don't think there's such an antagonism. For every long, literary-style piece that conveys some kind of technical or historical etc information that may be interesting in the latter kind of reader, who just wants the facts, there are another 10 sources that give just the facts.
For example, when it comes to Ms Shilling's Orifice, you can find the same information on wikipedia in much shorter form:
Beatrice Shilling OBE PhD MSc CEng (8 March 1909 – 18 November 1990)[1] was a British aeronautical engineer and amateur racing driver. During the Second World War, she designed and developed "Miss Shilling's orifice" to restrict fuel flow to the carburettor of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engines in the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire fighters. Previously the pilots had experienced a loss of power or even complete engine cut-out during combat manoeuvres, posing a potentially lethal disadvantage in the Battle of Britain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_Shilling
Note also that the damniniteresting.com piece is sub-titled with:
Long-Form/Podcast: How a female engineer defied all norms to save England in the Second World War. Written by James Holloway • 09 October 2020
Long-form should give a hint about what is to come. I believe such descriptors in articles (which I've seen many times, as e.g. in The Guardian's "The Long Read" etc) are there exactly to match the right readers to the right pieces.