I like the trend of well designed, objective news sources. Methinks these guys have a future.
I'd love to like such a trend, I just don's see one. Can you name a few sites from this trend I seem to be missing? I've been waiting for Polygon, but sadly it is far from being well designed imo. Few things that jump at me instantly when I try to read Polygon: tiny serif font but giant line-height in article texts (I hate waste of screen real estate, and I'm not even using a laptop or a tablet), spacings and padding…
I'm not sure why you have an aversion to those aesthetic decisions they've made, as most of them are technically correct and quite pleasing to my eye. They all contribute to conveying the game's innate experience and delivering an honest review without you having to actually play the game, and they do this well.