Micro-payments never really came to pass is the sad thing - except where they just increased in size enough to become "payments".
Though I suspect the answer is closer to the ugly truth: whatever you think you're worth, you're not really worth it unless it's through ads. If people had to think about how they allocate resources, then they'd inevitably decide they can do without in most cases.
I wish there was some kind of Netflix for site supporting. I admittedly don't donate because of how awful some payment systems are. I'd rather log into a site and tick a few boxes to pay.