Can't speak specifically for this site, but these days many prove-you're-human tests have been added because of overzealous AI scraping eating server resources unnecessarily and to an unreasonable and excessive degree.

Because AI scraping is everywhere and flooding sites with useless traffic. It’s not ideal, but it’s the best people can do atm

Because of enshitification of the internet you now need to solve puzzles before you can access websites. Welcome to 2026.