AdSense was definitely a revolution in many fronts, especially because it enabled small sites to start earning a decent income. And for that we'd be eternally grateful to Google. On the other hand Google back then didn't have the variety of products they have now so profiling was much less intrusive.

I have used an ad blocker for the last 10+ years. I don't know how Adsense has improved my internet experience, and I suspect it has had no effect.

adsense ads have not changed much since 10 years go. it had a huge effect compared to 20 years though.

It wasn't privacy invasions that made the ads better, it was Google making the process easier. Instead of dealing with shady smaller networks, or individual sites (which only businesses that extracted high value from online presence could afford, e.g. gambling,) any business could then easily and safely publish their ads widely. That is not going away, and advertising in the EU will still exist.

of course not, there will be more ads. EU developers are not going to just shut down their websites, and there arent any better european ad solutions.