It seems their users didn't wanted them to be so barebone.
I am not saying people want bloat, but they won't accept HN-style simplicity.
What I'd like to have is good looking sites with no CSS at all, just make them acceptable by default, and a lot of this bloat will simply go away.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/ - 12MB https://www.jamieoliver.com/ - 4.3MB https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/ - 8.4MB
It seems their users didn't wanted them to be so barebone.
I am not saying people want bloat, but they won't accept HN-style simplicity. What I'd like to have is good looking sites with no CSS at all, just make them acceptable by default, and a lot of this bloat will simply go away.