While it might be a bit hyperbolic to suggest that analytics don't tell you anything new, I've seen vanity metrics toted around on more than one occasion as if it meant anything actionable or otherwise unknowable. I think this is more common than the other way around. It's like the ol' conundrum where an A/B test is performed on a design change, and the B version results in more "engagement" with the site; what they fail to openly mention is that so-called engagement may just be the frustration of the user trying to bypass your crummy design update.

IMO, the best analytics for many businesses is customer acquisition and revenue as well as customer feedback. If you aren't adequately responding to those inherent analytics then you shouldn't yet be using The Google's form of black magic.

I started back in the '00s with server-side stat tools like AWStats and never learned anything new from checking them. Why would I keep wasting time? My subjective experience tells me they're useless for me, and this is a common enough experience.

That doesn't mean everyone will have the same experience, but it does mean most people probably don't need to feed into Google's ability to track everyone just to look at their stats and say "yep, that's where I'd expect a person to come from."