I'm not sure I follow what you mean by "If the viewer watches the ad, the ad buyer does not receive a return on investment." Doesn't the ad buyer want the viewer to watch the ad?

In any case, my comment was in the context of the OP, which is specifically concerned about the creator making money. If you care about the creator making money (and you should), then you have to either watch ads or pay them directly (via patreon, e.g.).

I have to admit that I have a sore spot for this subject. I believe (at least in America) that people are far too comfortable with the idea that we should be able to consume art for free. Obviously paying less is better than paying more from a personal finance perspective (and paying nothing is best!). However, it's quite clear that the distribution platforms are more interested in making a profit than they are in compensating creators fairly (some are better than others, of course). If the distribution platforms are stiffing the creators, and the consumers are paying little or nothing, then it's the creator left with the short end of the stick.

Generally speaking, creators just want their creations to be seen/heard because they care MOST about the art, not the money. Unfortunately, this often leaves them making less than they deserve for the value they create. Who benefits from this price/value disparity? The distribution platforms. I think if most people thought about this arrangement for a little bit, they would probably prefer that the creator gets more money and the distribution platforms get less.

However, I don't think that's the whole story. Distribution platforms need to make some money to cover the expenses of running the platform. I think it's entirely likely that the cost paid (via ad impressions) doesn't actually cover the TOTAL expense of paying the distribution platform overhead AS WELL AS fairly compensating the creator.

All that is to say, when you think about art in a producer/consumer context, it makes the most economic sense for the consumer to pay the producer. This circles back to my original premise: people are far too comfortable with the idea that we should be able to consume art for free. If we could get ourselves into the mindset that art is valuable and therefore should cost some money, I think we'd have a much more vibrant art culture.