[antasvara]

I think you then run into the issue of companies trying to sneak fraudulent clicks past Google. If I knew there was little to no chance of repercussions, I would absolutely try a bunch of programs to try and sneak fraudulent clicks past.

It's like if you told a student that there was no punishment for cheating, the questions they cheated on just wouldn't count. This doesn't hurt that bad, because if you were cheating on a question you (most likely) didn't know the answer.

[Mistri]

Sure, but in this analogy, if other students cheat off your test, you're punished for it.

[antasvara]

It's not a perfect analogy because advertising doesn't have a limited number of "questions." If someone adds fraudulent clicks to your site, there's no downside to your business. Worst case, these clicks are ignored. Best case, these clicks are actually counted. Either way, your business is unaffected.