I can't say I agree with the author.

Sure, not many people are excited or even interested in a new windows release anymore.

But why?

Well, if Microsoft were doing anything with windows other than making it less usable for competent users, increasing the amount of spyware they cram in and ensuring that everyone has to keep paying repeating fees forever I could probably raise a bit more enthusiasm.

But no, instead, I raise a weary sigh and prepare to block updates until the new 3rd party patches to block all their new security holes are completed.

Advertisers don't give a damn about any of that. Advertisers have been pulling out because online advertising is less effective than nothing at all in terms of generating revenue for anyone other than the advertising companies grifting the advertisers.

In reply to : "Will you now be a proud bad consumer non-sheep and buy the same games on Steam or GoG with 0% given to charity instead?"

You said: "Cannot speak for the other services you talk about, as I don't use them"

I have a suspicion that you have never bought a game from Humble Bundle in the first place.
Given that most games sold in Bundles are in the form of Steam keys, redeemable at steam, and you deny ever having used the Steam service...

Yeah.
Go be a super-self-righteous hypocrite all you want, but do try to be a better liar if you don't want to be called out on it.

No Tulip Bulb futures, Amway, percentages of Nigerian Gold Stashes or Florida "beach front" timeshares either.

Exactly! Did you know there are some people out there who consider themselves computer literate that browse without adblocking?

Sony lost me as a customer decades ago, specifically when they decided that attempting to rootkit my pc was an acceptable response to my buying a music cd from them.
No forgiving, no forgetting, no second chances and no excuses about "other departments". Full 100% guilt by association for anyone binding themselves to the Sony name.

You forgot the 3rd thing.
Having reminded or shown me the product/concept exists, online ads also go on to show me the brand in question is probably a collection of scam artists, and if the product/concept is actually worth considering (an incredibly rare occurance) I should look for another manufacturer.

If you advertise online you annoy people, and make your brand seem like a scam.

Especially so if you advertise in a manner that tries to evade adblocking and interferes with the functioning of websites in the process.

And if you actually get your brand on screen in front of me I'll make a concious effort to avoid it, as competant scammers are the worst types.

Just an aside, not a counter to your point (which I wholeheartedly agree with) at all:

Maplins killed themselves off in corporate suicide, not as a result of Amazon.

Amazon hurt them sure, but Maplins died from financial missmanagement, corporate shenanigans and deliberate financial sabotage on the corporate side, and from abandoning any effort to sell actual usable electronics in favour of being a "blinky light & gimmick device" shop, selling the same crap as found in poundland at much higher prices. What little IT gear they stocked in the last decade of their existence was twice the price of other brick and mortar stores, and always of an antique vintage.

"Have a Facebook account" is not the same as "have actually openned Facebook in the last 3 years, and are too dumb to have functional adblock in place" which is what would count as "on Facebook" as far as advertising goes.

If you're advertising on Facebook you're a scammer.

Seriously, choosing to advertise on Facebook means that you are looking to sell to the dumbest and least net-capable idiots (and, aside and seprately, are willing to abandon all ethics and disregard the bahaviour of the company you use for advertising).

Why would you do that if you were a legitimate business and had a product that could actually survive in a real market?

The summary, at least, is missing the one and only question of value about browsers (beyond basic functionality). Does effective ad, script, cookie and tracker-dot/sound blocking exist, and is it independently verifiable?

Nothing else matters.

Different people in different circumstances complain about different problems.
Shocked I tells ya, Shocked!

Never mind mass transit. My experiences of a few suburban areas of the states strongly suggest that they need to consider footpaths along with roads first. Once they get the hang of allowing pedestrians space enough to not have to dance with the gargantuan engineering failures they consider cars the work could move on to public transport.