Honest question. How would one write about a trend/subculture/community/etc without... writing about the sorts of people who comprise it and the community itself? As somebody who's always been into pens but never taken the plunge into fountain pens, I found this to be the most interesting part of the article.
Sure, it could have been a simple list of links about places where one can buy pens or whatever. But I already have Google and a Reddit account for that.
If I'm reading an article in the NYT or some other publication, the bare minimum I'd expect would be for them to for them to bring some things to the table that I can't get from thirty seconds of Googling or looking for the most popular relevant subreddit.
I am totally on board with your point. Giving color to the feel of a community is indeed an important part of reporting. And I think in that context, the inclusion of demographics make sense despite OP's displeasure.
What I object to is the characterization of a single individual based on his looks ("Hair like mink"). Not only does it tell the reader nothing useful, it doesn't give any sense of the community being covered. It's just a superficial aside, which if removed from the article would not lessen the reader's understanding.
By all logical measures, what you say about those superficial descriptions is of course correct.
However illogical it may be, though: I enjoy reading them! Though in this case, perhaps the article would have been better served by a picture of this person (who's apparently a big deal in the pen world)
Certainly there is some threshold after which I'd consider those physical descriptions distracting. I'm not sure what that threshold is.
Sure, it could have been a simple list of links about places where one can buy pens or whatever. But I already have Google and a Reddit account for that.
If I'm reading an article in the NYT or some other publication, the bare minimum I'd expect would be for them to for them to bring some things to the table that I can't get from thirty seconds of Googling or looking for the most popular relevant subreddit.