Yeah, I'm Gen X and have been trying to resist ads ever since I can remember.

Had two other roommates, and we'd be surfing the 53 channels or whatever on cable. Two of us had very similar watching patterns that we seemed to arrive at independently - we had a "primary" show and maybe a secondary one. When the primary went to ads, we'd either 1) slap that mute button ASAP and maybe chat a bit or 2) surf to the secondary show and watch a bit, use the last channel feature to snap back every little while to see if primary was back from ads or 3) go to the guide feature that scrolled current content.

Other roommate finally asked us one time why we do that. We said to avoid the ads because they are annoying AF.

He said: "why?"

When we paused and thought about how to answer this, he followed up with: "I love a lot of the ads, they can be really funny." [1]

Year later, when Tivo came along, it was like it was something designed for the other roommate and I's watching patterns and made it even better.

Anyway, these days I make copious use of streaming platforms and Plex and things like Invidious to avoid ads like the plague. I agree with you 100% - when I see someone employing all the tools to the best of their ability to not only restrict viruses and malware, but also putting up mental firewalls to the propaganda - I can usually assume that person is firing on all cylinders and we can probably talk as equals.

[1] To this day, I still just don't understand this type of person. The people that don't like football, but will watch the Superbowl "for the ads". All I ever think of when I see ads is the stuff my hippie boomer parents taught me and that it's probably all lies. Or that Chomsky said that programming execs consider the ads the content. Or, most effectively, the scene in The Trip where the protagonist played by Peter Fonda is thinking about what he does for a living - advertising - and at one point a woman says "lies" in part of his trip. I wish I could find a cut of that scene on YT...