Aha. IMO Latest posts is the most useless thing. Since, as you’ve noticed, it throws up all sorts of stuff you’re not interested in. And forces you to take active measures to push the junk out of the way.
My habit FWIW, is to start on New posts; that’s where my one and only SDMB browser favorite goes. From teh New list I open all the ones that look interesting in new tabs, then click [Dismiss New] to hide the rest from the New list.
Then I’ll go read those new posts in their separate tabs. Which, in the course of reading, will automatically switch them from Normal to Tracking. Which moves them into my Unread list whenever there’s new posts to that thread. Likewise, that means I get a notification if I’m quoted or @-ed. So I can tell the difference between a thread with fresh posts where somebody is talking to/about me, versus where the fresh stuff is just talking to the thread / OP in general. If, in the course of reading the new thread, I decide I actually don’t care about it, the last thing I do before closing its tab is set it to [normal]. Which means it won’t appear in New again, nor will it appear in Unread.
Once I’ve read through all those threads, it’s time to open the Unread list. Which shows me every thread I’ve already decided I’m interested in that has anything new to read since the last time I was caught up to the end of that thread. Then I’ll work my way through that list, replying or not as I want.
If along the way I realize I’ve lost interest in some thread I’ve been reading / contributing to, I don’t set it to [mute]. I set it to [normal]. That way it disappears from my Unread list, but I still get a notification if I’m quoted or @-ed. If that happens I can decide whether to bother seeing what they wrote, or if I care enough about whatever was said to reply or not, etc.
Then a few hours later I return to the Dope, do the same thing with first New then Unread, and I know that I’m seeing all the fresh stuff and all the stuff I know I was interested in a couple hours ago, and none of the stuff I’ve already decided I don’t care about. To me this seems the lowest-effort least friction-filled way to play this game.
YMMV of course, but this works for me.