You're absolutely incorrect about this. What you're saying may have been true a long time ago but it's 100% wrong now. In 2023/2024 you should click unsubscribe links.
No matter how spammy a sender is, an unsubscribe click is a big signal that they don't want to contact that email account again. It takes time and money to warm up a domain, prepare it for outbound email, and keep it from being blacklisted when you're sending out a high volume of mail. The days where someone can just spin up an email server in a couple of minutes and blast hundreds of thousands of people with spam are over. If you don't manage your reputation you'll get blacklisted in a matter of hours. The #1 way as a mailer to manage your reputation is to respect unsubscribe requests.
Yes, clicking the unsubscribe link indicates that there's a real human checking the mailbox. But data resellers have many ways to verify the validity of a mailbox that are more effective than this one. And unlike this one, they don't indicate that the person dislikes receiving unsolicited email. So very few data resellers use unsubscribe clicks as a way to verify email validity, because if they do they'll be polluting their product with the emails of people who are likely to get pissed off by unsolicited mail, report it and get a customer's domain blacklisted. If the data reseller is selling "verified" data that is getting his customers blacklisted - he won't be in business for much longer.
It's worth pointing out that not all unsolicited mail is illegal. There are exceptions carved out in US CAN-SPAM and in other jurisdictions. If you're a business in the US the law is basically that people can send you unsolicited marketing emails whether you like it or not, as long as they provide an unsubscribe link and respect your request if you click it. To not use the mechanism that is explicitly required by the law for your protection is shortsighted.