"People" vary widely in what irritates them, and the most vocal people are usually the outliers, not the average. Which creates the environment you describe: some outliers complain a lot about ads in all forms (myself included), while the majority of people continue to prefer free things with ads.

Note that this is not the same thing as the outliers who complain about ads also choosing free-with-ads products. I never choose ads given a choice, but my wallet-vote isn't strong enough to counteract the majority that do.