Solution: block HTTP ads.
While blocking ads will help some (and certainly some ad providers have gone way too far with their bandwidth/cpu requirements), the web is just a richer media experience than before. The mainstream does not just want text and 80-90% of the page weight ends up being images, even on that article itself. There are other advancements like HTTP/2 and modern CDNs and better image formats like FLIF that will solve this problem much more effectively without going back to a textual world.
Still don't see what any of this has to do with HTTPS encryption everywhere though...