Yeah, I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Ultimately, I think that we'd be shooting ourselves in the foot if we never embraced advertising, we just need to do it on our terms. It's hard enough to compete with the incumbents, and cutting off a huge potential revenue source will not help us win any faster.
As long as we stick to ethical companies, respecting user privacy, and not sacrificing UX, I think this model can go a long way.