It's become an instant close of the website for me now. I can't stand it.

It demos well when an agency shows it to a decision maker. Back in the day I used to use fine dining websites as a way to get clients to understand this dynamic. Lots of places would have a flash animation intro with music and images/video, etc. The owner loves this because the whole time they're thinking "this makes my place look so upscale and cool and desirable." Meanwhile, actual customers cared about location, menu, and hours being upfront and center without any bullshit. Thomas Keller never sold a single plate because he had an interstitial ad as the landing page on his website.