Why would you have to track all the things? The entire idea of the ad based system is that you still get access to the content even if you are not paying for it

Why would you have to track all the things? The entire idea of the ad based system is that you still get access to the content even if you are not paying for it. There is nothing to be tracked all the way through the system. If I see an ad for product X, then because someone wants me to buy X, but the money for that ad comes from someone else who already bought X. You might never know who that other person was because they bought their X in some store with cash and that other person might also not know about the website on which I saw the ad and have no interest in financing that websites. That everything is pooled together and not individually tracked is a feature. If you could track everything, why would you pay for content consumed by people contributing little or nothing to the ad budgets? All the tracking for targeted ads is an attempt to move into that direction, only spend money for ads on people who are likely to pay it back in the future. If you have no money, then there will be no ads for you and it turn no money for the websites you visit.