Yeah - it seems like this will cause a series of 5 second skippable ads that still sums up to >many seconds of unskippable ads (unless that's banned, in which case they will just see ads more often, as you say)

I expect it will make the experience worse rather than better because the publishers will try to maintain their inventory (how many seconds of ads they show per minute watched)

Are advertisers just really dead set on making our lives harder? It's a minor inconvenience, but I'm amazed anyone would go to such lengths to do it.

I understand there's money involved, but surely those who offer products must see that it's increasingly counterproductive?

Then a new regulation is needed; one that caps the ratio of seconds of ads to minute watched.

You mean a regulation will cause unintended consequence? Color me shocked