On the surface it seems unnecessary and absurd. But it's not. Here's why. What do writers want? Read time. It's how we get paid.

As a writer, if I wrote a 10 minute in-depth read I don't want someone clicking on it if they were looking for a 2 minute quickie. Because then they'll see how long it is, and bail. Which then flushes my read time down the loo. I'd rather they know up front how long the read is.

From a UX perspective, I'd rather have the read time everywhere the title appears. So I don't think it just serves the reader. Serves me as the writer, too.