One day they will. You can still block ads on old.reddit.com iirc, hence the incentive to do so. Right now (it seems) they would lose too many people if they did that, and they still need those content creators, for the commenters and lurkers to have something to engage with. But the moment that they can get AI to replace humans… I expect that old method of access to be shut down the very same day.

Not that I care - I’ve long since enjoyed going there.:-( Except it will create a flood of disaffected people to come here - yay more content but also… FAR more need for moderation, bc they will bring their toxic attitudes, encouraged by Reddit standard practices, with them.