You're ignoring the living, moving context that is the adtech industry. It's one with a much higher ratio of middlemen:customers than needed, representatives of whom appear in this article.
And, worth noting, the set of adtech industry persons includes all employees and contractors of Google. Google simple wouldn't exist if it weren't for adtech, and all cheques written by Google are dependent on adtech.
It's the largest, most invasive and pervasive privacy intrusion in history, and its beneficiaries includes many HN regulars.
I think I agree with you. I wholly support clamping down on adtech btw. I just don't support the "this article doesn't talk about the tech merit" angle of critique, as if that's so obviously a starting (or priority) point of departure.
It's the largest, most invasive and pervasive privacy intrusion in history, and its beneficiaries includes many HN regulars.