On the Web this effect seems to be even more pronounced.
People do read for depth.
In describing a complex system, one should first of all give an overview of the system. This type of organization of information is referred to as object oriented. So, the point is that depth on demand is what the WWW supports. And looking to get an overview of the subject in the first few minutes of reading is nothing wrong. Break the information into smaller units and make them the leaves of a tree.