I just tried disabling javascript for wired.com and actually found the experience of wired.com much nicer!

NoScript and Self Destructing Cookies (firefox extension) makes the internet much better overall. The first handles all but the most aggressive paywalls (the really nasty ones use <meta refresh> inside noscript blocks). The second handles the sites that you've turned scripts on for, clearing their cookies as soon as you navigate away. Just whitelist the sites you want to stay logged in to.

It's eye-opening how much of the internet relies on Javascript that you don't notice- and how much works totally fine.

uMatrix is even better than NoScript in many ways. It blocks all cross-site requests aside from CSS and images by default, and can integrate with uBlock Origin to provide a visual indication of which requests are to known ad sites.