Most people don't have enough knowledge to form a relevant opinion on the things that matter to them, and to be fair most people really don't have the time to become experts in everything. For example, before most people understood the harmful effects of smoking, only the people who actually looked at health data were concerned, and their voices were also drowned out by the people who stood to gain enormous amounts of money by having a population addicted to cigarettes. The average person was probably happy to smoke, it makes them look younger after all like the ads they were exposed to tried to demonstrate.

I think in time social media and hostile web will be seen as a similar public health concern. It's already recognized in the data the ill effects on mental health that these dark patterns have on people, and the unprecedented power of manipulation made possible by social networks. It's hard right now because Facebook et al today are what Phillip Morris et al were then: powerful beyond belief due to extreme profit, lobbying, and regulatory capture.

I'm an optimist, so I hope eventually we have our surgeon general moment for social media and the hostile web, and expert voices are heard over those of the monied interests who lobby solely for the continuous growth of their cash cow.