Re: Nobody likes being tracked, but...
On the other hand, as several comments above mention, avoiding ads and tracking is a dark art reserved for a paranoid & knowledgeable few, and maybe their loved ones.
I know plenty of people who don't like the thought of being tracked or targeted, but just can't quite make the small effort to defend against it.
El-Reg ads are targeted at a particular demographic. A demographic which is almost certainly the best informed and most able to avoid ads and ad-tracking. I would hazard a guess that many readers either don't block ads or have the site white-listed otherwise it would have disappeared long ago. I think that might change if they suddenly started seeing very personally targeted adverts.