Remove pull-to-refresh

[HT-7]

In mid-2019, with Chrome/Chromium version 76, Google unfortunately removed the #disable-pull-to-refresh-effect flag from chrome://flags (article), and no explanation was provided. This also affected derivatives, including Kiwi browser. The best solution provided in the Google help forum was to beg to Google through the feedback forms to reinstate that option, which unsurprisingly has proven futile.

I would usually suggest "add an option to turn pull-to-refresh off" (like #550). However, because refreshing a page takes just one tap-and-release or two taps on the three-dot menu icons (because the refresh icon appears at the same location once the menu is opened), pull-to-refresh is practically useless.

Not only is it useless, but it also is annoying and causes accidental refreshes. I can't think of a reason why one would enable pull-to-refresh. It's a web browser, not a social media app like Instagram or Twitter (whose web app, by the way, has an internal pull-to-refresh implementation on the notification page anyway).

Without pull-to-refresh, the user has the freedom to scroll up quickly without risking inadvertently reloading the page, which both adds a delay of several seconds and consumes the mobile data plan. If media was playing while an unwanted pull-to-refresh occurs, the user needs to seek for the last playing position, which could take upwards of a minute if the last position is unknown.

Imagine a desktop/laptop web browser reloading because you scroll against the top. Imagine you reach the top of the page but you have not stopped turning the scroll wheel yet, and then a white circle with a blue refresh icon appears at the center top of the window and the page, and then you have to wait for the page to finish loading, and you also need to seek the last playing position of a video or audio track. Wouldn't that be ridiculous?

Therefore, I propose getting rid of pull-to-reload entirely.