Ads are just the beginning. Paywall kvetching, loud Autoplay videos, cookie banners, mailing list pop-ups and all manner of dark patterns and anti features that hijack a simple reading experience are enough to just keep me off of those sites unless I can help it.
Yes, ublock origin can probably be configured to take care of a lot of this, but it's a manual process and a moving target.
Easier just not to engage.