Right, I'm in a similar situation here. I'm trying to read journal papers in the terminal. Previously, I've considered using pdf2htmlEX[0] to generate a layout-preserving HTML5 + CSS version of the PDF; then rendering it in the terminal using browsh (unfortunately terminal browsers like w3m don't support HTML5 + CSS) [1]. Between nougat and MinerU, they seem like a better option.
[0] https://pdf2htmlex.github.io/pdf2htmlEX/
[1] https://www.brow.sh/