> Less provides an alternative of <C-x> to stop following, but that is intercepted by most shells.

WoW, thanks a lot! That was my pain for many years. C-x works in Gnome Console just fine.

Funnily enough, it literally tells you right there on the bottom line: “Waiting for data... (^X or interrupt to abort)”. No shame in not noticing, just another case of blindness to long-familliar messages I guess.