Like any feature rich application, it takes a little time to learn the ins and outs, time saving features and such - but it's very usable for a site like hacker news, you can even navigate via the numbered links on the site.
I've tried HN on all the major text browsers in the past and they never seem to indent comments correctly. Without proper "spacial nesting" conversations are nearly impossible to follow.
Have you tried using any of those browsers? I don't think they're very convenient for frequent use. In Lynx, it takes 10 keystrokes to navigate to link #1 on Hacker News. 11 if you count accepting the cookie, which you have to do every time you open it, since it doesn't persist your choice. In my terminal, Lynx fits 5 stories at a time and navigating from one to the other takes 5 key strokes.
I use Lynx frequently. You can, for example, press > to go to the next link in the 'same column', which cuts down the keystrokes to go to the next story to two keystrokes.
If I'm browsing a site with a top menu in lynx I press the delete key to scroll down past the menu so I don't have to press down repeatedly. Then capital V at the cookie prompt rejects it "foreVer" (for the rest of the session).
My version does, however, default to nntp for news.* subdomains unless you supply the protocol, so that's annoying.
Or you can use elinks and click on the links with the mouse...
This approach allows you to tailor the controls and the display to the specific application, thus creating a more pleasant experience.
Have you tried using HN in lynx?