Macrumors works fine for me on Safari. But I have issues with other websites where pages just don’t load without me having to force close safari and reopen. This is what prompted me to look at alternative browsers lately. Firefox has been my favorite of the bunch I’ve tried. I know its the same rendering engine, Firefox just seems overall faster than Safari everywhere.
I haven’t really experimented too much, so maybe it has something to do with my AdGuard blocker. This issue happens more on my iPhone, but I regularly experience it with my iPad as well.
Edit: Just read your solution. Maybe I'll turn off AdGuard (and possibly NextDNS) and try that. It's likely the cause.