This seems to be a typical feature of "long-form journalism" [1]. This might be a typically American format? (As a Belgian, I also see this type of articles less often in our media.) I've grown to dislike it because it feels pseudo-intellectual: making articles longer with the implication that they must be of higher quality (especially in contrast to clickbait), but in reality, it often feels like the journalist is just fluffing up the text with irrelevant information. I think these articles are supposed to be read like a short story, but nonfictional, rather than as a factual account of what happened.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-form_journalism