Most free web sites pay for their upkeep with ads. It has been an unwritten agreement since forever (or at least as long as there have been ads on the web) that if you consume the content, you pay the creator by looking at the ads on their site.
Consuming the content without looking at the ads is like shoplifting because you don’t like the way a store’s checkout counter works and/or the fact that they want money from you at all.
You use a service but deny it the remuneration it expects. If that does not meet your definition of theft, do you also think turnstile jumping is fair play?
It would be boot licking if Big Advertising or Big Content actually cared about my opinion. I have no illusion that they do.
Is boot licking made better or worse when the licked boots are apathetic?
You keep using that
wordphrase, I do not think it means what you think it means.