"If you don't like them, don't click them" is a terrible solution, because I don't even want to see them.
Is it so wrong that I don't want "free" things if that means I'm the product and not the customer? Is that really such a hard market opportunity to exploit?
I'd rather pay money to not see them. Problem solved.
There's nothing wrong with that but I do think it would be a much harder market opportunity to exploit. You are definitely in a minority. Also, just a nitpick but if you don't click ads you are not a product since Amazon doesn't buy products who merely view its ads.
Apple's profits have very little to do with sales of its operating system. As I said, it would be nice to see "Ubuntu machines" but unlike Apple, Canonical would never enjoy a monopoly over Ubuntu hardware due to Ubuntu's open source nature.
Is it so wrong that I don't want "free" things if that means I'm the product and not the customer? Is that really such a hard market opportunity to exploit?
I'd rather pay money to not see them. Problem solved.