The whitepaper is a bit out of date. I'm not sure if that is still the platform's position.
You are against adds that would pay all SP holders? What other revenue model would be able to support billions of dollars worth of new capital flowing into the platform?
I'm against invasions of privacy, harvesting personally identifiable information and tracking. This puts me in the position of opposing internet advertising as it currently stands because the ad networks employ some of the most advanced and invasive tracking methodologies yet invented.
The lack of it is the only reason I gave Steemit a chance to begin with. While the uncompromisingness of my position is not all that common, most people are against tracking, but choose to ignore it in order to access services.
I don't see how it would be practically possible for Steemit.com to incorporate advertising without involving these ad network but if they found a way I wouldn't oppose that. However it's clear that they would go with tracking. That's what "content targeted to your interests" is a euphemism for.
Edit: I forgot to ask, then is ned's quote out of date too?