A trending page full of ads, regardless of how much money is spent, or burned, or declined, is still useless and ugly. I like how the tribes have designated ad slots, clearly marked. One should have to purchase STEEM, then buy the slot, and that STEEM should then be burned. It should be impossible to upvote the ad. I don't pay Walmart for leaving a flyer in my mailbox.
That is true. That is precisely why we should double down on downvoting advertisements boosted to Trending. Even if such an advertising slot system were implemented, which should absolutely be done, there is nothing else that can keep the actual content side clean but our downvotes.