I've always seen using an adblocker as a moral imperative to avoid giving the parasites any money. I also segment my browsing / shopping / buying to avoid referral tracking etc.

Imagine if that been mass culture! Imagine Doubleclick never getting off the ground, so it would have been unable to kill Google and walk around wearing its skin as a costume. Imagine if when all of the tech companies wanted profitability, they had to ask for subscription fees in exchange for providing actual value, rather than merely optimizing for "engagement" (aka time wasted).