Retailers have budget to spend and have that spend deliver a return. It's just a simple return on investment.
CJ, one of the biggest affiliate companies even encourages working with shopping extensions.
https://junction.cj.com/cj-value-of-browser-extension-study-...
Sure, and in those cases those retailers may choose not to partner with Honey. However, Honey maintains an active partnership with quite a lot of happy retailers, even after PayPal took over.
I think you need to watch the original video (again), because it sounds like you're making arguments that aren't grounded in the actual reality of Honey, but are based on what a normal company would do and how businesses interact and stop interacting with those normal companies.
I find it hard to understand -- many of these retailers are struggling, and I doubt affiliate links and cash backs are the best way to spend their market money
Many find it hard to understand which is why affiliate networks create studies, write articles, and post reports with results, similar to the one I posted. Retailers don't go in blind. They test partnerships and continue only if there are positive results.
Yes, many retailers are struggling. Perhaps affiliate links and cash back are not the best way, but it's not the only way that retailers try to be successful.
If you were a suit working at a retailer with budget to spend with the goal of getting a return on investment, maybe you would personally avoid spending the money on affiliate links. But get this, the TOP, BIG, SUCCESSFUL retailers all have data showing that the affiliate system makes the numbers go up. Even if they don't understand the system, they just care about the numbers.