It's a little light and snarky for my taste, but if you see it as a thin slice of "what people are talking about" more so than "what happened," then it makes sense. If you read this every day it basically hands you clever hot takes on current events you can use to sound smart with your friends. Not hard to see the appeal.
Personally, for thin-sliced news that's more about "what happened," I prefer Axios :)
I agree about the tone, but the 5 minute daily read to get some idea about things that happened the day before is really appealing. I get to have at least some idea what happened without having to scroll past the same topic repeated for the thousandth time or some sort of clickbait title.
I looked for some other "5 minute news" alternatives when I first found it, and didn't really find anything in the same vein.
Personally, for thin-sliced news that's more about "what happened," I prefer Axios :)