[inversionOf]

It's going to redouble the obnoxious tendency of sites to push users to their own apps where they can do essentially whatever they want. I doubt this was an unintended consequence.

Those that remain will eventually move to a model where ads come from the site itself, intermixed with content in such a way that makes blocking virtually impossible. This obviously presents trust issues for ad networks, but it really is the only workable solution.

without even spending a dime

Ads wouldn't work if people never spent a dime. This has been going on for quite some time, so the notion that it's built on nothing -- just a bunch of foolish advertisers giving money for nothing -- has always been folly.