This is a narrative that MS, Google etc want you to believe. They gutted it for ads. That's what's happening. There are workarounds now, that's what the existing ad block options are. They are heavily kneecapped.
Plus, those workarounds will only continue to work (in as much as they currently do) for as long as Google suffers them to. Enshittification, as always, works in baby steps.
uBlock lite is already ineffectual in comparison to uBlock Origin. I understand that it's nonetheless good enough for many people, but it will get worse from here.
