This take made me reel back, and shows a disregard for what longform content can do that shorts and tweets can't.

Maybe you have only been reading the wrong books.

Op didn't say longform is worse than shorts. I'm sure the opposite. The issue is padding. Most longform are padded to death. That's the issue.

30 years ago, that was the only option to read from. So people did it. Now people are not at mercy of these intellectual longform masturbators.