I agree. I don't know why there is not more outcry against the "position:fixed" attribute or whatever the correct technical term for sticky elements is.
I use a Chrome extension to try to get rid of them, but the extension does not work on some popular sites.
I like the way they position the footnotes and it is always nice to see web articles that are typeset well (serif font, old style numerals, correct quotation marks and dashes, etc.).
Kinfolk (the magazine) is known for its clean aesthetics and lack of ads, so anything else would be antithetical to their brand.