(hint: users just don’t care about privacy, except for the HN crowd).
I'm not sure that's true: uBlock Origin has twice as many installations as Brave does. You might say "oh, but that's just blocking ads!" But if you don't block ads, privacy problems are going to spring out of the woodwork like nobody's business. That is, they might not care about privacy by name, but they certainly care about it in effect.
I’d say the vast majority of uBlock users care about user experience. The current ad experience sucks. Most local newspaper sites, for example, are unusable because of ads. But if it still preserved their privacy behind the scenes and didn’t significantly improve their experience, the install base on uBlock and other ad blockers would be near 0.
And I'd say the opposite. My grandfather just wanted ads gone; user experience isn't even on his radar. I've seen the thesis you've presented here before, and while it sounds plausible, I don't think it's as cut and dried as it seems.
People really do hate ads. We're inundated with them, constantly. Low grade psychological assault, at all times. I don't blame people for wanting a respite.
Actually, you’re saying precisely the same thing I was. When I say “user experience,” I am talking about the ads being gone. No ads = better user experience.
I'm not sure that's true: uBlock Origin has twice as many installations as Brave does. You might say "oh, but that's just blocking ads!" But if you don't block ads, privacy problems are going to spring out of the woodwork like nobody's business. That is, they might not care about privacy by name, but they certainly care about it in effect.