There are multiple israeli companies who will provide you with millions of residential proxies at a per gb usage rate and a very easy API. You can set this up in minutes with claude code.
These IP providers aren't cheap (cost per GB seems to be $4 but there are bulk discounts). The cost to grab all of LWN isn't prohibitively high for an individual but it's enough that most people probably wouldn't do it on a whim.
I suppose it only needs one person though. So it's probably a pretty plausible explanation.