Newspapers were not journalists who wanted to place ads to pay for their salaries, they were admen who hired writers journalists to get people to pick up their advertisements.

Similarly, the free web is mostly content produced by people with little interest in getting paid (see livejournal, tumblr, blogger, pre-monetized everything: youtube, tiktok) and the providers are not simply trying to cover costs, they are trying to become billion dollar platforms.

All I'm trying to say is there's a vibrant internet to be had without prioritizing profitability and allowing ourselves to be subject to surveillance.