Not FOSS, but ad free and its been able to find the hidden RSS feeds for things OK. FeedDemon at: http://bradsoft.com/

Probably not what you are after, but maybe someone with a similar question.

to anyone who understand this behavior - what’s the man trying to do here? Is there any charitable read? Having a hard time imagining it.

… I don’t buy it. It’s horrifically easy to mess up this kind of experiment, say by taking all of one class’ photos at a different time or day, or with a different device. They claim validation; but I also expect way more natural error (we miss mild Autism diagnosis, no?).