Some web pages not working with Safari and iOS 12.4.9

I'm interested in whether anyone else has insight on a phenomenon with Safari under iOS 12.4.9 on an iPad mini 2. The experience is similar with the Firefox app, but the following description applies specifically to Safari. I'm not having any parallel issues on my iPhone which is relatively newer and running iOS 14.2.

I am seeing different behavior on one page of a website compared with other pages. As a subscriber to the Washington Post I can load the opinion page by going directly to that URL without going first to the home page. From the opinion page I can use various links to navigate the site.. except that when I try going to the home page I end up in a loop which ultimately results in a blank page saying "A problem repeatedly occurred on [URL of home page]". I have tried resetting Safari, changing various settings, and restarting the iPad a number of times, to no avail. There is one setting change which had an effect, but not a useful one... By turning off JavaScript for Safari I was able to get the home page to load and be stable, but it then indicates no subscriber is signed in, and the "Sign In" button has no functionality. The expected restrictions encountered by a non-subscriber take effect.

Although I cannot report the same results with any other sites it seems possible that others might have had similar experiences. At present my suspicions lie with iOS 12.4.9.