This issue really feels like an endgame in chess in a game between good players.

1) publishers can't just switch to serving images with their text and ads, because advertisers do not trust publishers, and this would enable them to cheat. So they can't move, they need the 3rd party tags.

2) browser vendors can't "fix" this, despite several browsers being done by large players in ad selling space (even IE's successor, Edge, seems to be making efforts to support ad blocking).

3) end-users won't switch on ads because publishers are overdoing ads, or they are helping malicious actors, or are simply malicious themselves.

4) advertisers can't switch away from the internet, because the internet is eating the press, TV, radio, ... It just wouldn't work.

Everything is stuck and nobody can move. But somewhere in there is the answer.