Gregory's ServerActually, IMO the fediverse is missing an opportunity here.
Optional privacy focused ads (and “promoted content”) could be a thing. A nonprofit open source privacy focused ad platform with support from lemmy, mastodon, pixelfed, etc. could challenge the likes of Google while bringing dollars to the various projects.
Ads themselves aren’t inherently bad. When used sparingly and within context they can be useful for product discovvery, etc.