In between which are often gratuitous photos and ads.

I think if anything, you need a longer attention span to read articles like this. I can no longer quickly skim through an article to get the gist. Instead I have to read every single "paragraph" because there's no way to know which ones are worth reading. That's much slower and requires much more attention.

exactly. It's a totally misguided style. I guess it's supposed to make it easier to read, but instead (to me) it makes it absolutely painful. In my mind's ear I hear this giant Captain Kirk dramatic pause after each sentence. So bad.