It is also just following the current trends. The biggest problem in design is subjectivity masquerading as objectivity.
To be honest, I kind of like the plain Times New Roman example, the only thing it needs is reduction of the width of the paragraph. Ideally should be around 50-70 characters and this is not subjective. It is pretty much the reason for the dimensions of a book and how NYT is typeset; everything in between. Easy to prove it to yourself by runnning a small experiment, too.
To be honest, I kind of like the plain Times New Roman example, the only thing it needs is reduction of the width of the paragraph. Ideally should be around 50-70 characters and this is not subjective. It is pretty much the reason for the dimensions of a book and how NYT is typeset; everything in between. Easy to prove it to yourself by runnning a small experiment, too.