That is true. They're not their to stage a photoshoot, they're there to take pictures of skiers flying through the air and put them on the internet. They might not know anything about slope, or half the other events going on there.
And quite frankly, neither does most of the audience. Besides us, who knows about slopestyle skiing? People see it at the x games as that thing before snowboarding, maybe? They don't know what they're looking for; they just wanna see people go flying through the air and that's what the photogs delivered.
It happens all the time. Photographers go and take pictures that purely cover stuff. They're not always great pictures, but they convey the message that we ski off big jumps. They're trying to convey a message. Not impress the audience with a stunning composition.
Of course, to them it's likely perfectly logical that by not including anything in the photo besides the skier, it might make them seem like they're very high above the ground. Showing the jump might not make sense to them. They're there to capture the action.
I could be entirely wrong too but...Also quoting is being dumb so I just quoted that.