Users don’t use adblockers because they don’t want to see ads at all; they they use adblockers because getting a usable web experience requires it.
Users don’t block advertisements; they block annoying advertisements. They block trackers. They block malware. They block privacy invasion.
I block advertisements because I don’t want to see any advertisements. They are poison for the mind and I want to eliminate any form of advertisement I can control. Obviously you can’t avoid a lot of it - but I can definitely avoid it in my web browser.
I would prefer a subscription based model or a donation based model. For example Wikipedia or Lichess I’ve donated to because I believe they provide a good service and show no ads. Or for example Kagi which is a search engine that charges a monthly fee.
Why not? It works for kbin/lemmy instances. It works for Wikipedia. It works for Lichess.
Sure, some things like video hosting are going to require a lot more bandwidth / server storage so perhaps those need to be subscription based but I think large swathes of the internet could be turned into a donation/subscription model. it just isn’t done that way because it’s less profitable.
look at which video games are the most profitable - it’s always the free ones. fortnite, league of legends, etc.