I just gotta ask: what’s this trend of tech blogs to appear like 90s html? No typographical rules whatsoever, basic colours with outrageous contrasts.

Does it make the blogs look more edgy and geeky? Is it a an artistic trend in web design?

I’d love some insights from someone with a better sense of the situation

according to Wikipedia, the blog was launched January 29, 1998

LWN is one of the most important journalistic outfits of the open source software world, not just some guy's blog. As the other commenter noted, it also dates to the '90s.