The underlying idea of promoting content natively while reading other content is a better user experience than other advertising and can democratize smaller publishers (with laser targeted relevancy placement opportunities) and brands reaching consumers in a very engaging and relevant way for consumers.

Whats missing today are two ingredients.

1. better policing of the advertisers/quality and relevancy scores like Gooogle and Facebook have.

2. Relevancy targeting that actually works. If we ever reach a point where the native ads are supplemental content that add to the story you just finished reading, It will be a net positive.

If you are part of the world that believes all advertising is a nuisance and bad, no matter how relevant, than we do live in different universes, if not, than anytime an ad unit fits natively into an experience to the point of removing friction (and not requiring switching context) it will go through growing pains but eventually will be a net win for the user (because actually providing value to users will maximize revenues.)