The business model of the websites I visit is not my problem. I block ads and trackers at multiple levels, very aggressively, and could not care less if some websites disappeared because of it. Perhaps then we will be left with a more sane and useful subset of the Internet.

Most of the websites I would want to see most are smaller and hosted and maintained by individuals or small groups.

People already pay for things like Kagi to try to get out from under the mountains of SEO adspam. I have to pay in time and aggravation to stay sane in the face of ever escalating tactics to shove ads in my face and manipulate my online behavior. So I don't think a smaller web would be a bad thing.

But I don't see that as likely to happen anyway; companies have found out that advertising and data harvesting is far more profitable, and governments have found the same to be very useful for exercising control.

I don't understand that thought process.

Why should I give up my data to any private entity?

If their business model depends on ads, then I say it should die.

Then the fix is pretty easy, just don't visit their site?

You can whitelist the sites that provide content valuable enough to justify it, which is not most sites.