What is Ad-Blocking Software Really Doing?

I recently read an article on The Huffington Post regarding ad-blocking: Ad Blocking.  The article is well thought out and points to the real issue, "is that ads have become larger and more intrusive", per Chris Aljoudi - an ad-blocking software developer, "They vastly degrade the experience."  Which I agree with, but keep in mind, from an advertiser's perspective, you need to grab the user's/visitor's attention.  The IAB is working on a "solution" working on a release  of, "concrete guidelines for ad creation and delivery based on its LEAN principles. The guidelines will address such issues as the number of times users are served particular ads, the number of ads per page and the targeting of users."

What's really in jeopardy here?  Publishers rely on ad revenue to pay for the creation of content that users see for free.  Jim Hirshfield, PageFair's senior vice president of sales, (PageFair's a tech startup that tracks ad-blocking), hits the nail on the head, "It's the tragedy of the commons.  The ordinary consumer, I don't think they think of [ad-blocking] as something that threatens the open web."  Per the article, "PageFair estimates that ad-blockers are costing content publishers $22 billion per year worldwide."  That's a lot of jobs - and yes, because I'm in the industry, I am sensitive to this. 

My question are; from a pure CPM standpoint, $22 billion is a lot of lost revenue and I do think it will hurt publisher's ability to provide "FREE" content, but with the industry moving more and more towards performance - those consumers blocking ads, were they really the ones producing clicks and ultimately engaging in some fashion with the product or service the advertiser was promoting?  Will publishers have to increase rates in order to continue to provide free content or charge for it?  Or, can we all just get along and find a happy medium?