You want to know why so many people either jump straight to comments or use alternate sources (archive, llms)? Because if you load the actual site, it freaking blows to use the damn thing.

So much hostile user design.

Edit: NPR gets a little shout out for being able to close their annoying pop-ups by clicking anywhere that's not the notification. So it's still crappy that it hijacks the screen, but not awful I guess?