Why do you assume that's the end goal? Pretty sure their goal is to get paid.

... and they get paid by...

people using their website. More specifically viewing ads while using their website. The kicker is (and I thought I explained this), the more obtrusive they make their ads, the more people use an ad blocker, and the less people will see their ads. I thought I covered that well enough, but apparently not for you.

But since they have to have a website they need to figure out a way to make some money or they're going to get laid off.

If they can't figure out how to make money without their website being obnoxious and nigh-unusable, then indeed perhaps it's time they found a new line of work, methinks.

Well if we're all having this attitude, then why should anyone care about your preferences for no ads?

Did I ever claim that anyone cared about my preferences? It's pretty obvious from the fact I said "most sites seem to double down", that I acknowledge most websites already don't give a shit and would rather squeeze as much as possible from the few people not running ad blockers than make the web a better and more usable place for everyone. They very clearly do not care about that, which is very amusing to me, as it means ad-blocking software will continue to improve and outpace shit web developers, as it's so popular and needed. Which sucks for them, that they're shooting themselves in the foot.

Ya followin' me, sport?