They are not out of their minds. They are rational and can probably make more money this way. They may lose us as readers but gain a ton others who may even be more responsive to ads. I assume most of us here use ad blockers anyway so they don't make money on us.
Reddit has gone out of their minds. They want people to target ads to, not a genuine community of people that care about the content they make. That's why those stickers have gone to absurd levels and they charge ridiculous prices for it. Now when I see a post, gold means nothing anymore. I don't even know whats a worthwhile post to bother reading cause half the time it's garbage group think irrational "the dems are freedom fighters!" stuff anyway.