I don't think this is limited to articles! I'll often read the documentation for some library or tool and I'll encounter a weird flag or option where I end up w

I don't think this is limited to articles! I'll often read the documentation for some library or tool and I'll encounter a weird flag or option where I end up wondering: what is this for? When you're not incredibly familiarized with a problem domain it can be hard to figure out the purpose of a lot of things. By providing real examples you also help the reader build up a mental index in case they ever have to deal with a similar problem.