I use the w3m web browser most of the time, and I don't usually say so because using a console-based web browser with no JavaScript support gets me blank looks. But it has some serious usability advantages over Firefox, one being that if you navigate off a page, you can ALWAYS GET THAT EXACT PAGE BACK. With no delay, no side effects.

I do not see any reason why this is hard to do. Everything is cached. Netscape Navigator and its clones (which includes every major browser today) seem to be deliberately broken to deny you the web page you saw 30 seconds ago. This is really a basic sanity feature without which I cannot consider myself in control of my browsing.

What is the philosophy behind reloading pages when the user does not ask for it? Why is this considered a feature?

Another broken relic from Netscape: Go back several pages, then click a link. All your "Forward" history vanishes. w3m fixes this, too.