I used to run without an ad blocker to support the websites I visited, but then too many would rev up my CPU and freeze my browser just because of all the ads they loaded. The experience of clicking a link started to become unbearable, and I went back to blocking ads.
I know that circa 2018 the ad industry suffered a shock as major players started measuring more precisely what value ads brought, and CPC went down, I think things just got worse at this point because websites crammed more ads in response.
Reddit and Medium are awful for this. I don't know what they're doing, but every page has a small chance of infinitely looping to max out a CPU core forever, unless you block their ads. I'll feel my laptop heating up and know that some Reddit thread somewhere is to blame.
I know that circa 2018 the ad industry suffered a shock as major players started measuring more precisely what value ads brought, and CPC went down, I think things just got worse at this point because websites crammed more ads in response.