Hey @liberosist,
I think that the look is "cleaner" because of that white space, and may be a good appeal to new users coming into the platform. I'd be entertained to see dual panel as well, be a lot easier to browse. I thought I was just super slow at scrolling through posts, but it's a good thing to point out in the comparison to reddit.
I browse TIL quite a bit and the layout "feels" a lot smoother than where steemit is currently.