Haha, I actually had no idea you were leading towards AO3. I actually do more browsing too, I guess, in that I just look through a feed to see if anything catches my attention (although I have not done this since before the filter issue became necessary just due to lack of time). But then that works easily for me because I'm just looking at one fandom, not a story type. I'm not sure how else you could approach those right now without the sort of specific searches you mention.