i have been using them for just as long, if not longer. it is very hard to believe that you haven't been advertised to via the internet on a computer's web browser, even with 100% blockrate on a script that makes zero exceptions.
the advertisement comes in many forms that aren't banner or video midroll ads. there are many sneaky at best, downright insidious at worst, forms of advertisement on the information superhighway that cannot be blocked out with a script so easily. you might catch it partway through an article's body text when they seem to incessantly sing the praises of a material product without even the slightest criticism, nor disclosure of payment from the providing party. or maybe the IP of some "anonymous" post telling people to die for an oil company lines up with an office that preys on people to get them to do just that.
you've probably seen, at the bare minimum, a handful of advertisements in those ten years, without realizing that they were advertisements.