we aren't weren't even willing to pay for higher quality content - though hopefully, that will change more with Web 3 development.

This is why I feel upvote based economies can work.Like you are only limited with the voting power and not something out of pocket. So here people tend to get good support. I feel like consumption based models should be more explored. More AI gets into the play more we need means to pay for the creators. Its not easy to be creator in future if ad model collapses.