I think if you're skimming longform and then criticizing it you'd be better off just not reading it at all.

edit: okay that was a bit harsher than it needed to be, for internet points. Uh, just maybe don't criticize it without a closer read.

The irony of this is delicious. You presume that the author had a "point" aside from the story that you mistook for a "long meandering path." One might wonder why an author would even care about reaching such an audience. Irony being that the author talked about exactly that cultural divide, but I'm guessing you missed that too.