Wherever I go, I often see the sentiment “This website has ads, so it’s trash” pop up in conversations. And honestly I don’t quite get why. 90% of the internet has always had ads, you just scroll past them and mind your business. At least they’re personalized now so you can pick a topic you like instead of diapers and miscellanous spammy trash as there once were.
Many people have become accustomed to life without ads. I have used adblockers in my browsers for probably the past 20 years. So the experience that you are talking about (just scrolling past them), is an experience that I don’t really know, unless I am suddenly using some other computer that belongs to a friend or something.
People have also gotten away from ads in their entertainment by subscribing to things like Netflix rather than cable.
Once you don’t have advertising shoved in your face 24/7, then suddenly being bombarded with it is incredibly offensive.