Looking at the network requests when you hit that button it seems to be hitting a lot of tracking providers opt out API endpoints. Which is good I suppose, though better not to even include their scripts until you agree to it
The saying not to attribute to malice what could be explained by incompetance only works if the actor isn't generally malicious. AdTech definitely is.
Why? That sounds illegal.
Why doesn't it simply not load the trackers?
Well, it could have been really easier to implement the opt out it later by this design, but it is more likely, that the dataflow is intended.
> Weather.com - an IBM business
felt like it explained this design pattern perfectly
No, it wasn't. It was at one time partially owned by NBC. Perhaps that's what you remember.