Musk makes decisions that are often suboptimal when it comes to business and profit, so that's the way out. I also have the feeling that he's bought this thing

Musk makes decisions that are often suboptimal when it comes to business and profit, so that's the way out. I also have the feeling that he's bought this thing to stroke his own ego and have better control over his soapbox rather than a business purpose, therefore absolute profitability may not be his priority. Furthermore, if he does this bet and it ends up proving that an ad-less business model makes more money in the long run, it may push the rest of the market out of the local maximum it's currently in and make them explore non-advertising monetization strategies.