The ads only appear for < 0.5% donators.  Adblock or not, they will not appear unless your donation is at the lowest levels.  The site is not "plastered with ads".  It has one wide but short google adsense banner ad.

Other ways to make money?  I'd be all for it!  This was just a way to get something out of the continued growth.  The pool's donations per block have been slipping consistently, and these ads on 0.0-0.4% donators are a very good way to normalize the revenue coming from people who don't give back to a pool that is currently demanding many dedicated servers.