I think you've got your chronology off. Ad blocking was a response to widespread advertising on web sites, not vice versa!
Ad blocking software has only become common in the last five years or so, as web browsers with "extension" support have become widespread. It was very rare before that.
This really isn't so. Ad blocking goes back much further. Here's Ad Muncher v4.7 from 2006: http://ad-muncher.en.softonic.com/ We were blocking ads back in the 1900s.
Internet display advertising dates back to the early 1990s (the first clickable banner ad was in 1993). I can't find any exact information on when ad blockers became widely available, but I suspect it wasn't until at least 2000 or so. I certainly don't remember them being a thing before then.
Most of the early banner ads that have been documented were run by generally reputable advertisers (and on reputable sites), not on the "low quality sites" you're implying. There weren't even very many such sites back in 1993; the Web was a very small place back then.
Ad blocking software has only become common in the last five years or so, as web browsers with "extension" support have become widespread. It was very rare before that.