[awill]

I'm confused why everyone (both regular users and plex pass users) gets ads.

[_ea1k]

I'm guessing that they are trying to find a way to get ongoing monetization out of lifetime plex pass customers.

[awill]

honestly that's how they lose their plex pass lifetime customers. Not how they monetize them further.

[Karunamon]

Wait, Plex has ads now?

[cptskippy]

Because the feature isn't free to implement so the ads offset the cost.

[ihuman]

I'm already paying them money, why should I also have to pay with screen space/attention?

[cptskippy]

With Plex Pass you're paying for access to features that typically require Plex to maintain a server and so some sort of processing.

This is content provided by a third party. Plex clearly didn't want to negotiate with each provider, figure out a pay structure, then pass those costs along to Plex Pass subscribers for a feature they may or may not want to use.

Personally I see no value it in and don't plan to use it. I'd be upset if they demanded I pay more for that.