[yawpitch]

No, if you really think about it, that’s not remotely true here. A creator — myself included — is paid by Google for their content, which Google uses to attract the eyeballs that the advertisers are paying them to serve ads to… the creator doesn’t actually have any interest (financial or otherwise) in whether or not those ads are actually being watched (as opposed to being served). Since virtually all creators rely on non-Google-served advertising income streams (PayPal, merch, sponsorships, etc) for their real income, and invasive ads merely impede that, anything that Google does to drive people to ad blockers really just hurts creators. No stealing is occurring.

[bagacrap]

This is some truly incredible mental gymnastics.

[yawpitch]

No gymnastics required at all.

I produce media and I sell it to Google. Google in turn produces an interested audience for that media and sells their views to advertisers in the form of ads served. Advertising agencies in turn produce ads to sell to (for example) GM… GM is the ONLY party with a material interest in the ad actually being viewed by the (potential) consumer, as they’re the only party who can convert my media into a GM vehicle being sold. If anyone in that chain can consider an ad blocker theft, it’s GM… that’d still be wrong, of course, for the same reason ignoring a billboard on the freeway isn’t theft.

When you lay a trap and your prey refuses to be caught they aren’t harming you.