I keep seeing this point of view around IT communities, and I think it shows how out of touch most people are with the average user capabilities, or just being

I keep seeing this point of view around IT communities, and I think it shows how out of touch most people are with the average user capabilities, or just being pedantic. AV software isn't there to prevent ingenious hackers to take control of random computers. Yes, it actually might create more surface for that purpose. It exists because most users do not have any understanding of the platform, and will just click on "accept", "yes" and "ok" hoping things will turn out well. AV are pretty decent at mitigating that. At the cost of some performance loss, you'll avoid having a bunch of ads and popups take over your computer, or at least mitigate the phenomenon.