I guess this just doesn't really bother me that much. Honest question - why should it?
I generally filter advertising out of my consciousness. I've clicked on exactly one ad in my life (that mystery box company). Maybe if everything advertised to me was that interesting (to me), it would be a net win for everyone?
Advertising metrics continue to prove that they are wrong.
HN will continue to have "contrarians" who think they are smarter than everyone else, and who reflexively argue contrarian positions, like "privacy is bad, actually", not because those positions are smart, but because the speakers are addicted to being "clever" contrarians.
Then you can get 2% of your ads clicked on.
All that said, I'd be interested in learning if my layman's perspective is garbage (which, let's be honest, it probably is).
I'm in the custom apparel industry, where a lot of purchases are (were - it's dropped off) driven by facebook ads. If Facebook ads were as effective as the HN zeitgeist seems to think, there would be no other kind of commerce.
Practically every commercial interaction (and most social interactions) are "manipulation" of some sort. At the moment we're trying to manipulate each other into adopting the other person's perspective. I don't understand what you find insidious about sales pitches; I'm sure they've been with us almost as long as prostitution.
Because of the impact of advertising on everyone's lives and the society at large.
An incomplete list of issues: http://jacek.zlydach.pl/blog/2019-07-31-ads-as-cancer.html.