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This seems to be a extra verbose version of "Inverted Pyramid" which is a common writing style when you want to get across the main point as quickly as possible, and then towards the middle/bottom of the article, it's mostly just information/context around the main point. But this article is a bit too extreme in repetitiveness I think.

All filler, no killer. (As in, no killer details or interesting news.)

It's not just for padding. Something like it would be done in newspapers, where I think the idea was that you would choose how far to read based on how much detail you wanted.

Not just how far to read, but when articles on syndicated, other publishers can trim off less important details from the bottom. Less of an issue these days with unlimited space compared to printed papers.