This post is a bit meandering -- I can't figure out if he got to the root of the ethernet issue or not.
I wonder if MEGA65 could allow for a Gopher and/or Gemini browser, since these are much simpler than web browsers. I always wonder why certain platforms, specially young alternative operating systems, don't focus first on a browser for these alternative protocols and then focus on creating a web browser than at least can render well things like Wikipedia and some basic news sites.
gemini requires TLS so it's a poor choice for a 48mhz, 8-bit computer.