Re: Paradox. Everyone hates ads. Everyone wants stuff for "free".
This situation is not long term stable.
Sooner or later people will have to find a new funding model for web sites.
Efforts should be rewarded.
I fully agree with you.
The thing is, ads don't *need* to be intrusive and annoying to be effective.
The situation we've arrived at with an arms race between advertisers and browsers has ultimately been caused by a parallel arms race within the advertising industry itself, where every ad has to out-do the others around it in order to make itself seen.
Combined with a vicious circle where website owners are getting paid less and less for showing more and more ads, and it's no wonder that things hit breaking point.
I don't know what the solution is. As you say, revenue from advertising is necessary for supporting many good sites, but until the industry gets a grip on itself it's difficult to criticise anyone for using an ad-blocker.