I browse with JavaScript disabled (NoScript) with a few sites that I care about whitelisted. Most web sites work fine although their layout is sometimes not what the web designer intended. Some sites don't work at all... for those sites I generally hit the "back" button. When I enable JS to view "JS required" sites, I usually hit the "back" button before it finishes loading anyway so why bother.
NoScript makes a big difference with my laptop and a HUGE difference with my phone.
I browse same as you: Firefox & NoScript, very few sites on by default. My experience matches yours with one other thing you didn't mention:
When I get a blank page, I do:
View
Page Style
No Style
usually fixes things quite well. E.g. seattletimes.com is blank by default but turning off Page Style gives me both text and images. Just not formatted very well, but I'm willing to accept that tradeoff.
NoScript makes a big difference with my laptop and a HUGE difference with my phone.