I'm not sure if Steem would benefit from ads. Because there are so much ads everywhere else, it would make sense to differentiate and offer totally ad-free platform.

If Steem (the blockchain) becomes successful, Steemit (the company that has developed Steem) doesn't need any revenue from ads because it will make huge profits from selling steem (the currency that they hold a lot) to other users.

It's huge win for everybody if we can build the community completely without ads.