Total Protection Alerts - plz help asap

So, let me start this off. I was on my macOS (now with Sonoma version), I installed Roblox and RobloxStudio from the official site roblox[.]com. Then a few hours later, I was saving a text/HTML file for a website on editpad[.].org. A few minutes after saving, I got redirected to a fake McAfee scam page from us[.]system-security-check[.]online saying "oH nO yOu HaVe 5 vIrUsEs" or something like that. I knew it was fake but I wondered how it got on such a trusted site I've never had issues with. After realizing "eh, it's probably just an malicious ad that slipped past the checking system or something", I stopped panicking. Fast forward to yesterday (October 16 as of today), I was reading an article (ironically related to scams) on India Times and the same thing happened, except with us[.]systemguardian[.]buzz as the fake virus pop-up site. Then I was on chat[.]chatgptdemo[.]net and I got redirected to a different type of scam (the one trying to get you to install a scummy Chrome extension) and an adult ad before the redirection. Now today, I was on India Times again and now I got redirected to a different "McAfee Total Protection" scam page. Before responding, please note that I'm on macOS Sonoma, have no unknown apps installed on my laptop, no Chrome or any browser extensions whatsoever, no Chrome apps, nothing executable in my downloads folder, and yesterday (not today as in Oct 17) I already cleared my browser data and reset all my browser settings. But I STILL got a pop-up scam ad today. I feel like I won't be physically able to sleep if I do not receive an answer. What do I do on macOS Sonoma? Was I victim of some sort of advanced completely unknown-to-most-man drive-by download/exploit or something? I'm starting to think it's not just an ad anymore. Is there anything I need to do or is it just part of the site? I don't want to install an ad blocker as it stops real webmasters from earning real money, and I don't want any third-party AV as it tends to be untrusted (like some form of data-seller) or just plain annoying bloatware. Please help. I don't want to tolerate this, as this could be a symptom of an even BIGGER problem. Thank you so much for any help, I'll check back tomorrow for your kind responses.