I pay for Kagi search.

What ads? My browser blocks ads. My vpn blocks ads. I pay for email so don’t see ads there. I pay for search so I don’t see ads there, either. I self host media. My TV doesn’t connect to the internet.

I seriously never see ads.

It’s the same hand holding the same phone, but it is in there twice. Not even the perspective has changed. That’s one easy giveaway.

So is this basically just another DAM system (but marketed more to end users/self-hosters?

There are FOSS DAM systems.