Of course it's ruining the internet, zero disagreement there.

All I'm saying is that the author is painting this fantasy picture that individuals voluntarily sending a dollar to site creators is somehow a substitute for, or even better than, the ad revenue they get. It's not. It's not even close.

Everyone agrees ads are terrible. The issue is that nobody has been able to come up with a viable alternative. Lots of ideas around micropayments exist, but so far they've failed for all sorts of reasons.