You're a real one.

Checking it out. I don't think it's directly related to my question, so I edited my post, but this seems cool.

Neal Stephenson predicted this (of course). Google, reddit, and others in the cohort are effectively 'shallow web,' easily searchable and manipulated by SEO. As such, you get 10-15 sites with all the same content, reducing the quality of your searches and the overall quality of web content.

It's an effort to get clicks and monetize.

There's no coming back from it.