Based on my (limited) experience in a few media companies, the problem is not malice, but just a complete lack of understanding of 'digital'. I've worked on mul

Based on my (limited) experience in a few media companies, the problem is not malice, but just a complete lack of understanding of 'digital'. I've worked on multiple projects that were really fun and good right up until we had to add various tracking tools and ads. They rendered the end product borderline unusable (which of course none of us or our leaders were bothered by because of adblockers). And the problem of all this wasn't just that the end product was ruined. It also played a significant role in the exodus of multiple skilled developers that were sick of toiling away at stuff that would end up ad- and tracker-riddled monstrosities. Just that struck me as reason enough to stop blindly doing all that.