I actually used text based browsers as my main thing for a few weeks, when I had really bad internet. Ran it thru ssh on a VPS, much faster that way. I found the w3m browser gave the best formatting and mouse support.
When I have a slow internet connection I use the Dillo browser with CSS and image loading disabled. Dillo is also really snappy even on an old computer.
https://www.dillo.org/