I am using Youtube (with Premium) and HN. Almost no other sites, only as links from HN. So here am I - not using adblock and not seeing lots of ads either.
I've been using Adguard Pro [1], which is paid (not subscription), but open source [2], on my iOS devices. It uses Safari's content blocker mechanism for blocking ads on the web. I went with it over other apps because it supports adding custom rules to block specific elements on a page, like with other desktop ad blockers. If you want to block ads outside of Safari, it can optionally set up a VPN on localhost to block the traffic.
Checked, they said adblockers were difficult to use and gave scary browser permission messages. One friend said he was afraid Google would shut down his account if they found out that he was "cheating youtube of their ads".
Might sound strange to some but when you teach users that their PC isn't really theirs to control (Windows EULA or Chromebook TOS) you get this kind of chilling effects and it's only getting worse.
This. The first thing I do when setting up a computer for a non-technical family member is install Chrome and uBlock Origin. I personally use Firefox but it hasn't been worth the trouble to try and have them use that. When the only thing on your laptop is Chrome it usually runs without issue.