Yes, programmatic ads far outweigh direct response ads in terms of number of impressions. However, the real money is in direct response! Those ads on Yahoo or WSJ's homepage? That's the result of a guy picking up a phone and saying "wanna buy my homepage for X $100,000 or X $1,000,000 per day?"
Direct response is basically a way of artificially reducing supply on the most valuable properties.
Direct response is basically a way of artificially reducing supply on the most valuable properties.