It's an average. Some people are going to bring it down, some people bring it up. I take a certain pride in doing my best to bring it down, but at the end of the day living in a capitalist hellscape, you have to concede it's going to get you at least a little.

Because it's not just clicking on sponsored Google links. You may never directly buy something sponsored, but by giving them your data, you give them demographic information to find people like you that might be more prone to clicking links, and that helps.

Google doesn't care if you spend money on what is advertised to you. They get paid just for showing you the advert.

That does matter. It costs money for companies to place adds with Google. That money goes directly to them regardless of whether or not you make a purchase. They then make use of their vast data resources to target people with said ads, which may not affect you, but definitely pushes products (some business people have described a 3x on investment with Google and Facebook ads).

Because Google ads are on nearly every website, and because Google owns such a large bevy of services including search, YouTube, Gmail, and maps, they can collect all of this data into a scarily accurate profile of your behavior, interests, and beliefs. Data that is shared with their partners and ends up all over the internet.

I mean, you’re just wrong. An attitude like this makes you a great target for advertising and marketing.

Exactly, and even if you bought a few, who the fuck is spending even close to that much a year. Advertisers would also have costs to the products they sell beyond just the marketing budget.