This is the one of the best takes here. It’s a delicate balance. Performance, cost, and manageability. Fail in any of these, and it doesn’t matter, you’ll either lose access to the site or be unable to manage it.
If staffing or money are insufficient, the site should do what’s necessary for survival, but only just before that threshold is exceeded. Users are important, but self destruction is not an option.
Some brands will show ads anyway.