I think a bloat-free web browser that works with most existing websites is a contradiction in terms. You could have something fairly simple that did the _job_ (jobs?) of a web browser, but it would not be broadly compatible. You could write something broadly compatible, but it would be intrinsically, inescapably very complex.

Maybe if we all thought like Arthur we'd just use gopher and be able to write a new client or server from scratch in an afternoon.