defined areas for advertisements

If you do want to go down this rabbit hole let me compare SG to SteamDB which never had ads and is still thriving. Estimated cost as told by the site operator ~100 USD monthly.
Seems SG is far from bankruptcy and moderators do their work for free. If moderation would get a little token of gratitude I'd think about whitelisting.

For me "help to pay for the site" isn't the same as to "give cg a good bunch of earning for doing, nearly, nothing since many years".

On top to the ads, he gets money with the ref links (of each link you click that lead to a store like Fanatical, but other ones too) -that is automaticly opt-in for each user till je opt-out at https://www.steamgifts.com/account/settings/referrals - and he gets money from the patreons.
Alone the money from the patreons should pay for the server costs etc., so the rest are earnings.

The mods get no payment, so all the money go only into the money purse of cg.

I would support this if that person would do a lot, as example to kick autojoiners, multiaccounters and other types of cheaters, but cg do nearly nothing. And he don't support the mods with needed tools, access or easy accessible/helpful ways to use the existing stuff.

So i don't supporting him with money, till he earn it with hunting the cheaters, paying the mods or such stuff.

And yes, the ads are annoying obtrusive places.