Unfettered, profit-at-all-costs is the problem. Paying for something brings no shred of chance that your data isn't being harvested. Zero.

Most people pay for credit cards by way of yearly fees, they track you. Purchase music? Your music is cross referenced in the name of discoverability. Hardware? Same.

Some of those things might be helpful in some contexts, and in others not. That fuzzy line is the discourse.

With all of that said, to cite the locus of all evil as “ad supported” as the problem is a logical fault line.