In my experience (large asterisk there), infinite scroll is great until you click a link, then hit back, and it doesn’t resume where you were before so then you have to keep scrolling to get back to where you were before. Maybe the infinite scroll experience is better now than it was in the dark ages of new.reddit.
Pagination just never really bugged me? It gives me a stopping point.
I believe it’s come from “based god”, which referred to a god that appeared on earth.
Of course, it’s been 10 years since I heard it used in that context, and assuming it hasn’t evolved since then may be wrong…