I was on my phone last night when all this kicked off. I got precisely one small ad at the bottom of the screen. (Chrome browser, Android phone). It wasn't in the way.
Today I'm on my laptop. Windows 10, Chrome browser. There are tall thin ads on the left and right that don't move as I scroll. There's a wide thin ad at the bottom that doesn't move as I scroll. There are three wide, thin ads interleaved with the posts that do scroll as I scroll, along with the posts. And there's a tall, thin ad below the 6 "latest posts" that also scrolls as I scroll.
That's a lot of ads on a laptop, but no different to yesterday (I don't have an ad blocker). The ads don't "jump about" or flash. I suppose the flashing depends on which ads you are getting, but since I don't have an ad blocker I can honestly say that I've not suffered "flashing" ads in months. For me, the most annoying ad is the wide, thin one that doesn't move, that sits at the bottom of the screen. That ad is often in the way (my laptop screen is quite small), but none of the others are. I very often find myself clicking the little [x] at the top left of that ad to remove it, when I'm reading a long page of posts.
This is all tolerable, if my alternative is paying for a subscription. It's far better than the Daily Mail and especially the websites of local newspapers.
PS I was writing this in another thread and noticed this thread tile pop up in Latest Posts - I don't type that fast! I thought this was a better place for my response.