Just so everyone is aware, I've started a branch of Adblock Plus that will track developments but will have the "acceptable ads" feature removed by default. I've cheekily called it "Adblock++".
It's available at
http://code.tommorris.org/adblock - it's literally just me taking ten minutes to undo the changes in source control that added the new bug/feature. There's an (unsigned) xpi in the Downloads section of the repository, but I haven't changed any metadata. I'm just testing it on my machines and if there's any interest, I'll try and keep it up to date. My intention is to just track Adblock Plus development and hopefully make an Adblock++ release shortly after each Adblock Plus release. But I don't really know anything about Firefox plugin development or publishing things on addons.mozilla.org, so I'll have to figure that out.
The nice thing with open source is that you can go from snarking about something on Reddit to removing the non-feature very quickly.
The reason I fixed it is because I don't like the fact that it is opt-out. Non-technical users like my parents are just gonna blast through the setup when they first install it without really reading it and then they'll start complaining to me when they see ads even though they've supposedly got an ad blocker installed. Not doing what it says on the tin, however you dress it up, is bad for users. I'm sad that Adblock team's response when presented with community feedback (even if it is strident and angry) is to cover their ears and write dismissive blog posts. Oh well. They are doing what they think is best.
I thank them for all the hard work they've done and all the bandwidth and privacy intruding crap Adblock Plus has saved me from so far, and I hope they carry on developing it in the future.