It's not baffling at all, they are using a WYSIWIG CMS that adds a lot of JS.

Ironically “just my two cents” is a waste of both bandwidth and time.

I think they use another definition of "small" than most of tech-oriented folks here at HN. They don't seem to be interested in filesizes, number of requests, or even usability. They used a WYSIWG builder (see their advertisement somewhere else in this thread), which is responsible for all of the bloat. It looked good on their (fruity?) devices, and they went with it. It doesn't look like anyone with a technical sensibility was ever involved.

In another comment the author wrote that the page is built with a WYSIWYG editor. Those tend to come with a lot of bloat and home-made tracking...

“Tiny Awards is a small prize awarded by an equally-small selection committee of online makers to the website which we feel best embodies the idea of a small, playful and heartfelt web.”