Yes, truely this style of writing is so tedious. Informative articles should aim to present the matter in the style of an Encyclopedia chapter.
Forget the writing, I didn't get past the title. I hate this modern trend of making the title into multiple clipped sentences. It makes even the most innocuous or mundane concepts sound like clickbait. So obnoxious.
It's NatGeo - they gotta appeal to their current audience... somehow :-)