I used to think this way about recipe stories, but I've changed my mind about it.
There are arguments about people doing this for SEO or ad revenue. But also personally I really don't mind the stories. I think it can give a lot of interesting background context for a particular recipe. If it's not interesting it takes like 2 seconds to scroll past it.
Also it feels just a smidge karen-y complaining about a recipe that's shared with readers for free on someone's personal blog just because it also has an easily skippable life story attached (you know, life stories, the kind of thing that you'd normally put on a blog).
Maybe you could make an argument that such an author could optimize for less frustrated viewers from search engines looking for recipes if they removed the fluff. But I think either (1) they would prefer to optimize for the more loyal recurring viewers with an interest in the author rather than the grab-recipe-and-go type of viewer, or (2) the fluff is what adds the SEO that brings in more of the viewers in the first place.
Sure, if it is a home grown personal blog. And it's a real story, then fine.
A lot of them appear to be just churned out by a corporate like Food Network, and many others, that are just filling up the online-recipe-ad-industrial-complex.
They seem very much like vanilla created stories to give the 'veneer' of 'quaint homespun' stories to provide the feel good quality.
There are arguments about people doing this for SEO or ad revenue. But also personally I really don't mind the stories. I think it can give a lot of interesting background context for a particular recipe. If it's not interesting it takes like 2 seconds to scroll past it.
Also it feels just a smidge karen-y complaining about a recipe that's shared with readers for free on someone's personal blog just because it also has an easily skippable life story attached (you know, life stories, the kind of thing that you'd normally put on a blog).
Maybe you could make an argument that such an author could optimize for less frustrated viewers from search engines looking for recipes if they removed the fluff. But I think either (1) they would prefer to optimize for the more loyal recurring viewers with an interest in the author rather than the grab-recipe-and-go type of viewer, or (2) the fluff is what adds the SEO that brings in more of the viewers in the first place.