Yes, proper and relevant ads could actually be a service to some communities.

Olin Lathrop‭ could you say more about the kinds of ads you envision, as compared to community-curated promotions? For example, if the community itself could create things to go into the right column to highlight products, services, or whatever, would that meet the need you're seeing? Or is the whole point that you want (certain) outside sources to be able to advertise things that members of your community might not already know about (and thus not be able to promote as I described)?

One example I mentioned in my answer is manufacturers announcing new products.

Ads are information, and information can be useful. The reason most ads are annoying is because they interrupt what you are really trying to do in the moment (TV commercials), are of no relevance (I'm not looking for a new car), try to bypass your agency in deciding for yourself whether it is relevant and you want to pursue it more (flashing or moving to get your attention even after you've already decided you're not interested), in your face (all over the web site pushing real content out of the way), trying to get you to do what is in the advertiser's interest on emotional grounds to hide that it's really not in your interest, very low information to hype ratio, etc. We can eliminate most of these and mitigate the rest because we control the platform and can afford to refuse ads that don't meet high standards. That actually raises the value for responsible advertisers and users.

I spoke with this senior marketing guy at an ad agency at one point and his philosophy was: only make adverts that people actually want to see. If you are annoying your potential customers, you are naturally doing everything in very wrong ways: essentially paying money to get less customers. The kind of "maximum exposure at any costs" advertising only kind of works for simple mass market stuff like soda and tooth paste, not for quality and/or niche products.