I think it is actually clever. First of all it not in the foreground or side by side, reducing area for the useful content. And at the same time it immediately promotes the tech with no marketing words - look, you can do this, it runs flawlessly without lag or stuttering. Seems to me it's a nice balance between marketing and useful info (text and links).

Yes, I suggested that. I was in Chrome, whose reader mode is incomprehensibly hidden and unsupported.