I subscribe to a magazine that publishes tests and reviews of everything from lawn fertiliser to spices, via vacuums and mobile phones. It costs money and I trust that they are not bribed.

It seems rather certain an end to advertising would mean the death of lots of low-quality "media".

Good information is valuable. When internet didn’t exist people paid good money for newspaper and magazines because they provided good information which people found valuable.

The context of this thread is that vendors wouldn't be able to pay review sites.

Because its not illegal to do shenanigans and they indeed invaded all product review sites with dishonest reviews

Or consumers could contribute back to them making them free resources. Remember the early internet? It was free and it had no ads. That until the pop-ups and flashy banner ads showed up murkying the waters. It appears that advertising inherently wants to agressively take all out attention.

Yet another reason to ban paid ads.