The UX anti-pattern of theirs which really grinds my gears is the "Continue reading in the app -- it's better." modal which appears when reading articles on the web. There does not seem to be a way to permanently opt out of it. I'm sure I could use GreaseMonkey or whatever to dismiss it for me but I mostly read articles on my phone, which makes any of that harder. The larger point, though, is that I shouldn't have to! I'm already paying for your service, please let me use it the way I want to.
Especially because in most ways it actually isn't better in the app. Even on an iPhone 17 it is usually quite slow and hangs frequently. Offline reading SHOULD be a clear advantage to the app, but it is completely inconsistent about what will be available offline, when I'm sure a significant fraction of their readership are New Yorkers trying to read while commuting on the subway.
You probably know but firefox on mobile let's you use extensions, for which i have ublock origin installed and regularly use it to block modals and things that my filter lists (every single one activated) don't cover already.
I've actually been meaning to move back to Firefox, so this is encouraging. I didn't realize you could do that sort of thing with uBlock, though? I thought it was just for blocking ads, etc.
Under the hood, uBlock works by filtering DOM elements. The "ad blocking" part of it is the set of curated filter lists built on top of that. But it also allows you to right-click on any element and create a custom filter, or write your own using DOM queries.
This is what I use to block the news feed on FB to prevent doomscrolling.
You can also install Bypass Paywalls Clean on mobile Firefox.
Despite having a NYT audio subscription, I continue to listen to the ads in a third party podcast app just so I don't have to use their god damn app.
I emailed them about this and they said they would consider removing it. But need more people to complain. If you are a paying subscriber please let them know! There is power in your voice.