I don't accept the bargain of an ad supported internet. If I had to choose between ads and not seeing the pages, I'd go with the latter. There is no such thing as a good faith actor with respect to advertising. If someone is making something worth paying for, they should just charge for it, I'm happy to pay for stuff I value. Advertising corrupts everything (the "you're the product" cliche) making it never a good deal as a user.
Same. I just don't see advertisement as respectable income. Entertainment feeds too many mouths, people expect to make a living in an oversaturated market. I consume "media" mostly opportunistically. For the most part, I don't even like myself wasting time like that. If someone wants me out of their audience, that's fine with me, but don't presume my attention grants you commercial rights to my mind and autonomy.
People made a living out of providing valuable content before advertisement seeped into every aspect of life. I don't think we would be at a net loss, if all ad financed productions died all together. Why can some creators live off of Patreon donations/subscriptions, while other can't? Fact is, with the internet, the true (non-opportunistic) demand for (redundant) content doesn't increase much with population size. Relatively, fewer people should expect to make a living out of media production.
I think, the real problem is people's increased need to have a side hustle, since the projected security of a stable 40h job is increasingly a thing of the past. People don't have truly "free time" anymore to talk about their interests as a hobby, without the pressure of opportunistic commercialization. There used to be highly informative articles, podcasts, videos... people made solely to share their thoughts and interests with the world. How come these creators didn't seek out commercialization back then?
Creating artificial demand through advertisement enables a whole new parasitic economy of fake products, which fuels the dumpster fire of existential challenges we as a species are facing.
I am happily denying anyone their ad income through sponsor block and ublock. Indeed, I am even more happily watching them not make it this way. Good riddance. If you put out content I can freely access, and if my attention and community isn't enough reward for you, get a real job, or fight those seeking rent in your own life.
