Great to hear your feedback! There are some very opinionated people on HIVE that is against many things that could benefit HIVE. Solo projects have very little chance of getting noticed unless you are already well known and well capitalized.
I'm both sad and happy to hear there was a plan to implement an ad supported front end. You were years ahead of me. On the other hand, it sucks to hear it going nowhere. The best way to make a news front end work is by collaborating with an existing team and making sure the project can be sustainable without DHF or other donations.
Ask around on Discord to see if any developers are interested in trying this out. There are few projects with an existing Token. Alternatively we can reward content creators with HIVE. You have more credibility than I do. There must be at least a few who would take this idea seriously.