I disagree. I've been on ad-supported platforms – places where I actually got more reads than here. On Blogger, at one time, I had around a 50K readership. But, the return on my AdSense account never reached the minium of $100 to get a payout. That money still sits there, unpayable. On other ad-promoting platforms, folks leave because the ads are intrusive – particularly the pop-up ads. I've left three platforms entirely and delted my content because of pop-up ads.

Maybe…

Maybe if it was a one time ad page as you enter the site for the day. But, if I have to deal with ads all over everything I read on this site, and/or random pop-up ads, I can see readers fleeing in droves. All that will remain are those tired old recycled pseudo self-help articles.