If we make it difficult for services to be ad funded, perhaps alternative methods of funding will emerge. Perhaps alternative methods of service delivery will emerge too which don't require large companies to build their own data centres (peer to peer, distributed).
I don't get rid of ads on my systems because they're annoying. I do it because they introduce massive single points of failure, they add massive centralised attack vectors which have in the past been exploited, and will be in the future too, and because they slow down web browsing.
If you care about security, you use an ad blocker.
The web is already full of stuff that is free and is not ad-funded. There are already many services that have free versions with paid advanced versions.
If everyone used ad-block, it would change the web. In some ways for the better, in some ways for the worse. It wouldn't destroy it.
Well there is one option for funding websites. I'm sure ingenious people will come up with dozens more. Instead of how it is now where they are forced to squander their creativity making sites that are ad-funded.
Not all of the web is ad-funded, and it's just a matter of us giving that part of the web a chance.
That's only a problem as long as ad funded versions exist. Get rid of the ad funded versions and it's no longer a problem, as the non-ad-funded versions will no longer have to compete with them.
Plus, many useful services will still have free versions, and then provided paid upgrades.
Plus, many useful services will stop being centralised, distributed, free, peer to peer versions will be created that cost nothing to host, and they will be popular, because there are no ad-funded versions to compete.
That's a false dichotomy that assumes there are only two solutions, ads or a paywall. There are other solutions, including ones that haven't been invented yet.
I will happilly pay for the service, as much, as advertisers earn on me. Sounds fair, and I doubt it will be a large sum, based on how often I click on ad's.
There are many different kinds of paywall. Some sites have early access to content and the ability to comment only for paying users.
Others have just one simple ad on the page, that is controlled by themselves, not a third party network.
The lovely thing about the internet is that there is an ever-increasing horde of people who will put their content out for free. For each purely ad-dependent site that goes, several sites - from free to paid - will take their place.
I don't get rid of ads on my systems because they're annoying. I do it because they introduce massive single points of failure, they add massive centralised attack vectors which have in the past been exploited, and will be in the future too, and because they slow down web browsing.
If you care about security, you use an ad blocker.