You WILL be getting ads in the app, though. There's nothing in the article that says you won't. This is like Snapchat's subscription. You get more features, but still have the ads. This isn't replacing "if it's free, you're the product", it's "if you're willing to pay, you're an even more valuable product".
Don't they already have some subscription to get rid of ads?
In some countries, but not everywhere. I know it exists in the UK, maybe EU as well.
Or even if you block all ads, the statistical value of your data is still important for showing ads to people like you and people around you.