I discovered reddit on desktop, switched over to RIF and one day I created a burner account on desk top (2021 ish) and was shocked at what I saw.
The actual content was in like 10 point font with ads and an instant messenger function taking up a quarter of the screen.
If people only ever used the desk top or official app, they have no idea the experience other people were getting. Essentially only the all page had ads, they were the same size as posts, they were more clearly delineated as ads, there was less of them.