People are already not surviving, literally and figuratively, the time has long since come and gone to “hope” the problem isn’t real. The problem very much here, and it is absolutely going to kill us unless we do something about it right fucking now.

Would much rather pay a small developer directly than be force-fed ads, even if the excuse is that the ads pay the bills. I don’t think this is a particularly unique sentiment and there are plenty of less scummy ways to generate funding than by running advertisements.