as silly as it sounds, not everyone has money to spend on information. ads fund the web so information can be free and accessible. same thing with TV and pretty much any other "free" content.

the reason I like the "slice" model is users can at least get some money for their troubles of seeing ads... that money can then be spent with publishers. to your point, i definitely envision a world where publishers have micropaywalls powered by LN, but before we see mass adoption, we need users to have LN wallets with funds in them.

slice could provide the means to get people to start earning their first sats, which could in turn start to power the publisher micropaywall model.