I literally do own a business and my profits are held back by the mere fact that I don’t actively try to manipulate people into giving me their money.
outreach, discount sales, testimonials, business pages are all marketing. "purest form of evil" unless you're doing it i guess.
(or, perhaps, there's some nuance to be had instead of proclaiming marketing in general to be one of the "purest forms of evil in existence"...? )
The idea that you can’t even in passing mention something you spend all day every day working on, because then it’s “marketing” is exactly the sort of consequence which leads to so many of us loathing marketing as an industry.