Haha, I think the web is a lot like markets. Buyers will pay up to what they can afford, i.e the best price is the one that the buyer feels very uncomfortable but still pays because they want something and they can’t it anywhere else at a better price.
Sometimes this is abused (see US healthcare) but that’s the rule of markets. Demand and Supply.
I guess the internet is the same. The media companies will try to use every analytics and ad company under the hood to maximize every little ad click they can get. They will fill the pipes to the brim and implement every dark pattern as long as they make that extra revenue. (See taboola - the scum of clickbait advertising)
At the end of the day if you don’t like something. Don’t use it. I rarely visit cnn. I install adblockers and tracking blockers. We fight it with what we have.
It’s supply and demand laws. We as consumers install stuff to block annoying things, they as sellers will keep on annoying you as long as you keep on visiting them because a mild annoyance of ads and auto-play videos is how they keep the lights on.
The case of Google however is they are on a mission to have a monopoly of search on their browser and ads on their platforms. That’s how they make 90%-ish of their revenue. Google could say whatever the hell they want to say their mission is, their actions and financials clearly say what they value.