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Inverted pyramid was specifically "designed" for print so that a news story could be cut at a more or less arbitrary point to fit in a hole of a particular size. It's not a universal writing formula.

(That said, I agree that introductions in a more magazine-style story can ramble and can benefit from having all the "throat clearing"--as an editor of mine used to call it--being cut or pared down significantly.)

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stats on online reading suggest that the inverted pyramid is even more essential here than for print, as everyone makes their own decision when to close a tab, and vanishingly few read the full piece most of the time.

FWIW, I agree that this piece went on about various aspects of Theranos for way too long before getting to the meat of the piece.

That said, the purpose of a piece of writing isn't necessarily to communicate a list of increasingly less important facts--which is what fits best with inverted pyramid. Different people have different preferences. I'm not necessarily writing things to maximize eyeballs on the first and second paragraph.

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