[Havoc]

The internet existed before paywalls or ads.

Maybe not in its current form where faang gets to make billions loads of services are free, but fundamentally it can exist

[insanitybit]

Of course it can exist. But say goodbye to random blog posts from people who just want to put their voice out there. They'll need to establish a platform first (probably on some other ad-subsidized platform), get people to pay upfront/ subscribe, and then buy hosting.