[speleding]

Your points help with discounting the claim that long lines read faster. But that does not say anything about OP's claim that short lines are better.

I'm not convinced by OP's argument "New York Times does it": pretty much any book does the opposite.

Perhaps we need more/better research.

For what it's worth, I set my screen to be very wide when I write because I like to write each sentence on a single line: it allows me to easily spot sentences that are too long, a mistake I often make.

[thaumasiotes]

Your points help with discounting the claim that long lines read faster. But that does not say anything about OP's claim that short lines are better.

Yes, that's true. I was not trying to dispute or support OP's claim that short lines are better. I was trying to dispute my immediate parent's claim that the way to handle questions like this is to refer to the scientific literature.