Many of those articles aren't full of fluff because the authors don't know how to write concisely. They're full of fluff for other reasons, such as:
- The piece is written to make a good story, not to convey facts. I tend not to like these myself. But asking them to consist of bullet points would be like saying that Romeo and Juliet should consist of a bullet list of the plot points: it misses the point.
- It's SEO spam, or a submarine ad, or a blog post about something the author makes money on, or a post by Wolfram obstensively talking about one thing but actually mostly talking about how great Wolfram is, and the objective of the writer is best achieved if you spend a while reading it.
- It's a recipe. I don't know exactly what's going on, but judging by the effects there are some really weird incentives around online recipes.
For writing that actually aims to impart knowledge, agreed: bullet lists are great (even for non-dyslexic readers) and we should use more of them.
- The piece is written to make a good story, not to convey facts. I tend not to like these myself. But asking them to consist of bullet points would be like saying that Romeo and Juliet should consist of a bullet list of the plot points: it misses the point.
- It's SEO spam, or a submarine ad, or a blog post about something the author makes money on, or a post by Wolfram obstensively talking about one thing but actually mostly talking about how great Wolfram is, and the objective of the writer is best achieved if you spend a while reading it.
- It's a recipe. I don't know exactly what's going on, but judging by the effects there are some really weird incentives around online recipes.
For writing that actually aims to impart knowledge, agreed: bullet lists are great (even for non-dyslexic readers) and we should use more of them.