Bullet point #1 here doesn't get enough credit either in this article or generally here on HN comments, but is a major factor. A lot of the recipe blogs that o

Bullet point #1 here doesn't get enough credit either in this article or generally here on HN comments, but is a major factor. A lot of the recipe blogs that originated this form of long-winded stories leading into the eventual recipe have regular readers. Many of those readers aren't looking for specific recipes at any given time they are looking for the stories first. Those stories are the real content to those regular readers. (And regular readers with their recurring ad revenue/demographics are the ones that pay the bills, ultimately, not "went searching for a specific recipe" utilitarian users.) This isn't even a new phenomenon in recipes pop culture, because food TV shows learned this decades ago. Most cooking shows break down into two categories: competitions (which mostly never even give recipes) and "lifestyle" shows that may include recipes but just as much include the "celebrity chefs" chatting as much about who they are and what is going on in their lives and storytelling why the recipes in question were of interest in that moment as much as the details of the recipes themselves. This isn't even an isolated phenomenon to recipes. It is common, modern parasocial behavior. You could look at something like Twitch as a utilitarian resource to see gameplay or learn tips/tricks, but obviously nearly every stream is full of streamers chatting about their day while they wait for game lobbies or in between other parts of gameplay and whatever tips/tricks they may have to impart. It's the parasocial "human interest" that builds the biggest and most reliable parts of their audiences (and in turn most of their revenue). There are a lot of reasons people complain about it a lot more with recipe bloggers than Twitch streamers.