I think I was not clear. I meant to say that instead of hitting the users with creepy ads that the users block anyway or have developed a "mental ignore",

May be the ad companies can sell harmless image ads that content publishers can serve from the same domain as the content is. No tracking, no user customizations. The user knows what they click. Why would millions of people working at ad companies go out of business in the above scenario?

The ines that are writing creepy user tracking code will have to go. But, I don't sympathize with them. They will find some Tyler's meaningful to do with their skills.

Imho, just because millions are doing/depending on the creepy stuff doesn't justify their presence.