Yes. And if you turn on "I am an advanced user" mode, you can selectively enable JS just for sites that need it that you want to allow to run arbitrary code on your machine, while still initially blocking everything from every new random site you encounter.
And for many sites, their main content is in their html and the ads are delivered via JS, so blocking the JS blocks all the ads.
Not a single popup, didn't find any ads more than a text-only banner on top asking to subscribe. Some whitespace where ads might go though. No adblock.
I'm in EU though, maybe they actually respect GDPR. Or maybe it is just a glitch.
I had no idea the article even contained any of those until I read your comment.