Logging in is enough friction to prevent me from browsing casually. Especially when I'm on a work computer.

One benefit is my productivity had a temporary boost this week until I find another site to read.

Maybe RES (or other extension) should gain a mode where new reddit is rendered in the style of old reddit?

For you to give that good-good user tracking data you do.

You can do it without logging in too if you use an extension that autoredirects. That's what I do. I use a FF extension called Old Reddit Redirect.

I'm able to browse old.reddit.com without logging in right now.

Maybe it's for specific subs?

Same here. I can't stand the new Reddit. It spins up fans on my $3500 laptop, freezes and loads very slow. Once the old one stops working, I will have to stop using it.