I do the same thing.

Often, I'll look at what kind of comments are made on HN to decide if the article is even worth reading.

I agree with your position that lots of web site are annoying in the way they load slowly and display lots of nonsense, ads and overlays and awful UIs in addition to the article itself.

Once in a while someone here will take a swipe at the primitive layout of Hacker News. But I love the utilitarian layout of Hacker News. It's simple, clear, uncluttered, fast and intuitive. Saying that it looks like 1992 isn't a meaningful criticism.