Good point - a few weeks back until now I've reduced 100 tabs to 20 WHICH INCLUDES bigger story of why...
more as a number from opening and closing more from each orignal page - like a research list branch out and back!! A kind of tree of exploration so it's more than 100 actually maybe 200 including sub pages while research / collecting / checking what is worth it or relative to other things!
You mentioned for articles so is a bit tangental but also can tie in other things for full understanding or mood.
That's partially why things can stay open longer because they are still valid or 'in progress' somehow with all the human stuff happening in our mind at the same time! Often unclear! )
BUT YEAH KILL THAT ARTICLE TOO lol!
I also take snapshots like an archive later (makes one feel better or a named file - a few Mb filesize can close a tab earlier after snapshot tool (fireshot for firefox) saving with PNG format)
Long post but yeah practical I hope in realising why much can stay open / hold relativity.