Maybe this is an age or generational thing, but I, at 49 years of age, tell my customers that if they want <thing which is guaranteed to annoy site users>, then

Maybe this is an age or generational thing, but I, at 49 years of age, tell my customers that if they want <thing which is guaranteed to annoy site users>, then I'm usually quite blunt and tell them they really, really should think again, as annoying their existing and potential customers isn't a good thing. Like I say - perhaps it's a generational thing, perhaps it's just me, but I'm not going to just passively go and do something which is going to make me feel bitter and resentful. Seriously, try it. Be honest and straighforward with the people you are doing work for and tell them that <annoying web thing> is probably going to be detrimental to the users of their site - and detrimental to the numbers of users of their site. In my experience, the people you are doing the web work for appreciate honestly felt, straightforward, blunt opinion and advice - and the ones who don't appreciate it aren't worth becoming bitter, self-loathing, and resentful for. The very fact that one might start to feel bitter, self-loathing, and resentful, is your mind's way of saying to you "now hang on a moment, you know doing these things is wrong - you need to reconsider". If more developers started to give some good, honest, and blunt feedback on these dark patterns to the people who desire them to be included in their sites, then that would in my opinion go a long way towards these dark patterns being used less - although that probably won't stop the more cynical site owners because they'd be more inclined to cynically use dark patterns anyway, but hey at least you tried and also you might wish to reconsider doing work for them in the first place, in favour of better clients.