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Notes -
It's an interesting question. I haven't read all the comments here, but if I were to try to provide a steelman, it might be:
As others have argued here, the medium the ads are on are fundamentally being displayed on technology that the user is in control of. Therefore people have the capability to use ad blockers, and some portion, but not all, will
Companies that buy ad-space know point #1, and they factor it into the price they're willing to pay. Lots of market research goes into whether ads are worth it, how much to spend, where to spend it, and the expected ROI for ads.
So basically, it's sort of a free market solution to the problem, in that the market should balance itself out. No serious company would buy ad-space if it was going to get them nothing in return. So basically, the system still works, even despite the fact that some people use ad blockers. If it didn't work, like if everyone everywhere decided to install an ad blocker, then the system wouldn't still be ongoing, and a new system with a new model would take its place. This is very similar to how I may argue that it's okay to change the channel on TV when a commercial is on.
As a further argument that the system works as is, websites and web tech really could be doing a lot more if they felt that ad blockers were stepping on their business model and revenue. Chrome could ban the biggest ad blocker plugins. Some sites already don't let you view their content if they detect such plugins.
And then there are totally weird and sneaky ways that sites could get around your ad blockers. Ever watch just about any free internet porn past 2015-ish? All the porn sites all do weird things to make sure you get those ads. Like for example, when you first click the video, it redirects your tab to an ad, and makes a new tab for your content. I assume it does this to fool the adblocker plugin, since such plugins are mostly looking for popups, not site redirects.
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