This is a very good argument and many people (myself included) have independently come to the same conclusion that advertising adds very little value for the cu

This is a very good argument and many people (myself included) have independently come to the same conclusion that advertising adds very little value for the customer but takes away a lot of value by distracting them away from better alternatives. Then there is the problem that big companies get bulk discounts for advertising and show up higher in the listings (in spite of paying less per-ad); this gives them unfair competitive advantage. Most small projects these days understand how difficult it is to compete for attention and convey information. This is mostly because big corporations and startups backed by big VC funds have monopolized the media. Technology has progressed greatly in the past few years but most people don't know it yet. Technological progress has been hidden away, drowned out in noise. For example, there are some very interesting and radical things happening in the blockchain space but these projects are not visible because they cannot get any attention. Instead, what all people know about blockchain are the scammy mainstream projects - These mainstream projects are in fact discrediting the entire industry and hiding real progress. But it's the same thing with startups; that's why there hasn't been any major new unicorn since WhatsApp.