> Maybe if ads were somehow banned and services would only exist on a subscription driven basis, we'd have have more content worth buying and less clickbaity stuff.

Why ban ads though? Fundamentally after you encounter a site that has ads once you can simply choose not to go back if the content isn’t good enough to justify seeing the ads, right?

Generally people like the content but don’t want the ads and aren’t willing to pay for subscription. News sites are the best examples of this.