Yeah, about the only bit there that gets me is the printing. But I'd be a happy camper if more webpages could be effectively used with `curl <url> | less`.
I also realize that it's difficult to make the kinds of social media inspired experiences™ that most consumers expect nowadays without some curl-breaking beast like React or Vue, and that most websites nowadays see themselves as an entertainment medium more often than they do a simple conduit for the transfer of information. I am beginning to think that that, too, speaks to what RMS is on about.
I was recently setting up my machine and figured I'd try 'mutt', the terminal mail reader. It's a pain to install and isn't great for HTML emails, but it sure is blazing fast and allows me to create custom macros that are really useful. Maybe if I stick with it, it'll be faster than GMail. But then again, after I set up some filters, my volume of email to look at in GMail was pretty low, so the performance advantages of 'mutt' are not as important now. It feels super cool though. We can't underestimate the aesthetic value of cool terminals.