I disagree JavaScript is fundamental to the web - I'm a huge JavaScript fan (top 1% I'd say), and write it for my job... I've written a few books on it even... but I always use noscript when browsing the web: hackernews, reddit, twitter - can all operate fine without JavaScript. Dodgy third-party ad scripts/malware do need it, but I don't really want them running anyway.
Yes, 20% of sites I load are either a blank page or "You need to enable JavaScript to run this app" (it's the new "An error has occurred"). If it's a friend's site, or something that obviously needs it - like a game, or art project - then I'll temporarily whitelist it. But if not, then hey, I just got a 20% productivity boost by saving some time on whatever it is that thinks it needs JavaScript!
Most if not all ads can be blocked with an ad blocker like uBlock origin.
I used uMatrix myself in the past (I also used NoScript a much longer while ago), but it requires too much time to cherry pick the remote hosts (usually CDNs) and files to allow.
Yes, 20% of sites I load are either a blank page or "You need to enable JavaScript to run this app" (it's the new "An error has occurred"). If it's a friend's site, or something that obviously needs it - like a game, or art project - then I'll temporarily whitelist it. But if not, then hey, I just got a 20% productivity boost by saving some time on whatever it is that thinks it needs JavaScript!