That you didn't notice the lack of CSS is precisely why you need to see this from the point of view of a non-technical person. If my mother-in-law saw this page, she would probably call me screaming that her computer had broke or she had been hacked.
Re:How I do my computing
by thrownaway122 on Sunday May 17, 2015 @05:12PM
(#9561715)
And yet other people's parents beg them to install 'that blocking thingy that makes the web less flashy'.
Today, lots of websites use full-width images and videos on their landing pages, make multiple requests for all sorts of assets and use all sorts of tracking and analytics code. More and more often I find myself closing a tab in frustration because the page is taking too long to load. Blogs, e-commerce sites, this is getting quite common.
I interpreted your parent comment as a call for minimalism, nothing more.
> The jarring "Oh the CSS hasn't loaded" moment is precisely what he wants you to experience.
But I honestly don't experience that moment. I see some text and I start reading it. You're over-thinking, IMO.