So ads are often a place where dark patterns happen and such.
But take Apple for instance. Apple seems to respect user privacy to a fairly far extent compared to say, Facebook, Google.
If apple wasn't around ... we would probably say something about "you can't have these fancy smartphones without someone stealing all your data". But clearly Apple can do it (for a lot of reasons)... so we know it is possible.
I feel the same way about ads, it might be different, but it can be done.
You can build a phone if you want, install Android on it, and sell it without paying Google anything. There's a ton of Chinese companies doing just that; Amazon does it too.
I remember one of the Amazon Kindles sold 2 versions: one with ads that was cheaper, and one without ads that was more expensive. So people do pay at least to get rid of ads (I'm sure both versions collect your data), it just costs more, and most end up not being able to afford it.
For all the good in the iPhone, year after year android gains ground worldwide by virtue of being cheaper and more flexible.
The ads are almost entirely irrelevant but seem benign enough since they're always for other books (mostly self-published, I suspect) in the Kindle store. They're also limited to the lock screen so hardly intrusive.
It's only recently that I've occasionally considered paying the £10 (?) to get rid of them and the reason is pure vanity: I'm now (fortunate to be) in a fancy job with a fancy title and I don't want to look like a cheapskate.
They still sell both versions, presumably if only very very few people bought the ad free version then they would have stopped selling it.
But yes, in previous generations bad things were bad, too.
It's kind of disappointing that news website still have ads even after I decide to pay for access.