The generic nuclear option to hide terrible web design, bypass (some) paywalls, and improve performance 1000x is to disable javascript. ublock and adnauseam both have a button to disable all javascript on a page, which is handy when reading articles on sites filled with garbage.
Be slightly careful, there's a known issue (limitation of Chrome really) where requests and javascript are not blocked in the first few seconds of launching a browser or an incognito window (you can test this yourself). And this is true even with "Suspend network activity until all filter lists are loaded" enabled, because I think it's some limitation on Chrome as to when exactly extensions get loaded.
So if you do rely on javascript being disabled for safety, after a fresh launch or new incognito window, you should visit a safe webpage first before going to the risky one.