Some of this makes me think of OCD type behaviors (of which I have some but mostly mild). There are some things that each individual finds easier to ignore or not think about than others.
The example above on game start up vids is a good one. For me it is so insignificant that going to disable the movies is way more effort than I want to invest in something that bothers me so little in most games. Yet for others its an annoying thing that probably grows in annoyance each time they start the game and soon becomes a "focus" point in their mind.
There are situations where I know I get a certain thought in my head, or something see will bother me, and it becomes very difficult to get it out of my head unless I do something about it.
Maybe people feel compelled to read things they don't want to because of the idea they might miss out on something (and instead would simply prefer not knowing it was there in the first place).
Or, on another principle, instead of being able to shrug and move on their annoyance with a particular subject, person, game, etc., grows instead of being ignored. Each time it comes up they get a bit more annoyed and have a hard time getting it out of their head.
The entire ability to ignore or focus on things is a pretty fascinating psychological subject on its own. Sometimes I can completely ignore certain sounds when trying to sleep ... and other times my mind will totally focus on the sound making it more and more annoying and making sleep impossible.
Some glitches in games I can ignore completely while other ones will drive me nuts if not fixed.
Anyhow somewhat see these news feeds, even people who post, in this regard where some things some people can easily ignore and move on and in other cases can't.
At which point hiding or ignoring something, even if short term, can be helpful.
For me I find it very easy to avoid news I am not interested in, I skip over tons of newsbits every day. I sometimes have a harder time ignoring individuals, however, and then find the ignore tool useful if needed although it's usually short term until my temper dies down.