[iainmerrick]

Right, I’m genuinely confused about what the author thinks would be better than that table of contents.

I guess they wanted an answer to their specific question and absolutely nothing else? That might work for something as simple as “iterate through a dictionary” but in many other cases the full context is useful so you can figure out for yourself whether the immediate answer actually solves your problem.

[philipwhiuk]

If the author wanted to write "How to do absolutely anything with a dictionary" they should have titled the article that.

Was the first 20 paragraphs on what a dictionary is really useful? No, it's unnecessary verbiage that anyone clicking on an article with the title knows.