In articles like these, I get the impression that the only substance is what is quoted or paraphrased from the actual article being talked about, and the job of

In articles like these, I get the impression that the only substance is what is quoted or paraphrased from the actual article being talked about, and the job of the quoting author is to simply pump these out at a moderate speed, with added filler. The filler doesn't actually matter: it's just calming background noise for the actual content being "disseminated". If you were just provided quotes from the paper and illustrations, you'd feel like you're talking to a robot's notebook. The intended effect seems to be a minimally intellectual, maximally effortless, elevator-type anecdote-conversation. If you're making small talk with someone you hardly know on the elevator, you wouldn't care to criticize their viewpoints, right? I guess this is a long-winded way of describing click-bait.