Certainly, there are sites that we could do without; there's clickbait-filled garbage that does nothing but pollute the Internet.
But there's also a lot of really good stuff out there that is supported by ads. Stuff that people put their heart and soul and a lot of effort into, and stuff that I (and probably you) love to read, that wouldn't make it without ads.
I can count the number of sites I've ever heard of that are paid for by their users on one hand.
The reason people block ads is not because they don't want publishers to get paid. It's because most ads are actively user-hostile, ranging from merely fucking annoying to malware vectors which can cost you a lot of money. Quoting 'jacquesm from other subthread, "Browsing the web without an adblocker is like sex with multiple partners every day without a condom.". [0].
Having been a part of a lot of media sites in the past, I can safely say that wouldn't have been true for any of them.
So even though they created something of value (otherwise it wouldn't be on the front page) but most people still won't pay for the content.
Patreon works the same way. You make money when you produce content that people want to pay for even if they don't have to. If you can't do that, ads are a fine plan B, but you have to go into that knowing that many people will be ad blocking (and even more if you're producing any kind of technical content).