Comment by llm_nerd

It definitely isn't prevalent, and usually is for "feature" pieces (like an expose on the Washington Post back when they were a real newspaper), along with product pages.

Apple uses it for their various pages, and it is legitimately annoying-

https://www.apple.com/iphone/

Tesla is a fan as well-

https://www.tesla.com/models

Occasionally sites use lazy loaded images, and do a "fade in" effect when they're actually loaded. Nothing wrong with that particular use.