Thanks for the screenshot, Dirhael
If I recall correctly, there was a bit of a brouhaha when 2.8 was announced and the response was that a future release would allow users (possibly users who had purchased FeedDemon in the past?) to disable the ads. I wonder if FeedDemon 3 will be such a beast...?
At any rate, the ad pane is very small, so if I AM forced (or motivated) to update in the future it shouldn't be too bad!