Excellent point! Let me first quickly explain that the only reason I appear fixated on content-creation is because the vast majority of "save the ads" crowd use

Excellent point! Let me first quickly explain that the only reason I appear fixated on content-creation is because the vast majority of "save the ads" crowd use the "but the content creators will stop" argument ;) The answer to your question is simple: it doesn't matter. Replace "content creator" with a more general "service provider" and my point remains exactly the same. There is no good reason why we need to defend ads, specifically, as a business model, other than "it's already in place". And while "being in place" is a rather strong force, more and more people are using ad blockers. I would consider that a pretty clear indicator that we need a better system. There's one last thing I would like to clarify about my argument: no matter what systems we have or lack, the question is always who cares for something enough to pay for all of part of it. Ads try to take that question away, but they don't -- they merely make it seem like they do. But even if we didn't have the ads, there are always ways to shift the burden of payment away from the totality of the consumers. For example, the service could be sustained through a donation drive. Wikipedia comes to mind right away, but so does the PTSA of the public school my son goes to. Another source of funding might be the service provider: there are people out there so passionate about what they do, that they'll pay the costs out of their own pockets. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everyone should depend on altruism, but it's also an option that doesn't get brought up enough.