I feel like this comment was made in bad faith. Brave Rewards, the thing you're complaining about, is OPT-IN. That means you had to manually enable it in Brave's settings. You're complaining about something you consciously enabled.
In what section does it say it's opt-out? Not doubting your statement, just that I don't see it any of the sections I looked through.
If you mean the sponsored ads on the New Tab page, then yes they are indeed opt-out. But the person who I responded found the browser pop-ups annnoying. That is a part of Brave Rewards. The New Tab page ads are not a part of Brave Rewards unless you explicitly enable that in the settings (second section of the link you mentioned).
Do I have to participate in Rewards in order to use Brave?
You do not need to participate in Rewards in order to enjoy Brave. However, note that sponsored images on the New Tab Page are on by default, but can easily be disabled. (If you enable Brave Rewards, you will earn for the New Tab Page sponsored images you see.)
The sponsored images you are referring to are not a part of Brave Rewards, not by default. GP was referring to pop-up ads, which are a part of Brave Rewards and are opt-in.
It's not in bad faith. I downloaded and set up the browser. I was unhappy with the ads shown to me - I wouldn't have checked a tickbox during set up if I had known what the result would be like.
