I get where you’re coming from, and you’re probably right in this instance, but I disagree with your absolutist “never” stance (insert/ignore star wars meme per preference.)

There are plenty of free ad-supported services out there, a classic example being Gmail. If the user was not getting anything of value from this “free” service they would not use it. So they ARE getting something for free because of the ads. The fact that El Goog is selling their data for profit, making the user the actual product and the advertisers the customers, is a separate matter, and I suspect, is what you’re leaning in to.