[TheCleric]

“Here’s the thing: I am 100% sure these things are connected. The more people block ads, the more aggressive advertising became.”

This is naive at best. Some of the worst ads (popups/popunders/autoplay flash with sound) existed years before adblockers.

I don’t know what the adblocker usage rate is but I’d bet it’s low as virtually none of the non-technical people I know use them.