I wonder whose bright idea it was to label ads as 'helpful'. Do Google execs actually look for ads first when they google a question?
They're not talking to users of the internet.
Their usual justification is in the end somewhere tied to "people click on ads so they must find them useful". And yet somehow always ignores the fact that their platform often does all it can to hide that ads are ads and makes them look as much like content as possible.
The 'advertising' part only makes sense if it seeped in small degrees at a time.
I do agree with you about the deluding part though. I was (as a user) all for hyper-personalization of ads on all platforms when I worked in ads. Since I’m not longer working in ads, I’m more skeptical and value privacy a lot more.
Honestly, the core problem is that we can’t trust the platforms selling the ads.