Good start to the thread, OP. Might as well throw my 2¢ into the mix.
I highly suggest either Opera or Pale Moon as browsers.
https://www.palemoon.orgPale Moon is more privacy friendly, but it doesn't provide support for cutting-edge web technology, which can break a lot of sites. Use only if that's a trade you're willing to make.
https://www.opera.comOpera is based on Chrome, and features it's own independent extension store, built-in VPN, data saver, battery saving mode, and lets you pop out videos (even on /mlpol/) into a hovering window you can watch while browsing other sites, among other things. Highly recommended for daily use, and a good backup browser if Pale Moon is your main browser.
As for extensions, I've got a few choice picks I think no Anon here should browse the web without.
uMatrix https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrixFor Firefox, Chrome, and Opera.
A firewall for your browser that blocks most sites from doing anything without your permission. This includes blocking ads, cookies, scripts and videos from being sent to your browser.
Essentially a more fully-featured, graphical version of NoScript. I encourage any NoScript users to give uMatrix a try, unless you're using Pale Moon, in which case NoScript remains your only option.
This extension can break sites like YouTube, but is usually fixable with just a few clicks. Always be ready to allow scripts and videos if things stop working.
uBlock Origin https://github.com/gorhill/uBlockFor Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Pale Moon, Thunderbird, Safari, and Edge.
A very good adblocker that can also bypass underhanded anti-adblocker measures with little to no issues.
Developed by the same guys behind uMatrix; both extensions can coexist without issue.
Decentraleyes https://decentraleyes.orgFor Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Pale Moon.
Prevents you from being tracked by CDNs by emulating a CDN right on your browser and intercepting any calls a site may make to one.
A CDN (Content Distribution Network) is a service a site can use that hosts important scripts and resources so that the actual site itself doesn't have to; outsourcing the load on the site's server, in other words. Of course, this opens you up to being tracked, and blocking CDNs outright is guaranteed to break most websites. Decentraleyes tackles this by pointing all CDN requests right back at the browser, where it hosts most of the resources the CDN would normally provide. It also has a paranoid mode to forbid CDN requests, even if Decentraleyes doesn't have what a site needs.