To be fair, reading up on Richardson he's been pretty torn about this for a while, it's not some new fangled thing. The fact he has a star cyclist Welsh girlfriend however, that's brilliant work by the GB Cycling entrapement department! Well done, agent finucane.
I guess not everyone uses the screen at default 100% width setting. I also use some websites at 80% or 90% width for better reading. I use TO in 100% and the sidebar isn't a major distraction for me (on my laptop, I don't use my phone for that).