Ads provide something to other companies, but I would agree not much to society at large. But that's because ads are the monetization -- their purpose isn't to

Ads provide something to other companies, but I would agree not much to society at large. But that's because ads are the monetization -- their purpose isn't to provide value to the end users. It's like asking, what value does taking money from customers provide them? Well, the product/service they paid for. Ads monetize all sorts of useful products and services at scale like information, communication, and entertainment. Google being free means someone that wouldn't be able to afford a $25/mo (or way more) subscription gets equally good access to information. YouTube being free means people have access to entertainment created by independent creators who can be compensated for their efforts without being a part of a large organization. Facebook et al. being free means everyone can be connected without any one person being left out because they can't afford it. I think you know all of these things and we're basically debating on where the balance is between value from service and the cost of privacy, etc.