It's like the playing field was leveled exclusively for the benefit of the mediocre.

As neither (despite my username) this makes me sad

Ahh, that makes sense. I wasn’t on the lookout, and opened the article with a full intention to read it. I after the initial skim (and being somewhat disappointed at the length of the thing) I read a couple of sentences for the sections which interested me the most, and that was it. I could not read any more.

Now I know why.