[TeMPOraL]

Oh yes. I've seen this plenty of times not with just ML, but even basic statistics (and by seeing I mean working next to people doing it). You don't need to understand statistics at all, as long as your customers don't understand it either, and you sound confident enough. If it's hard to verify whether a model works, you can keep the customer happy and yourself paid while not providing much, if any, value to them.

I currently believe this is how most ad tech runs internally. Scammers scamming scammers.