I did not read this as suggesting advertising is useless, the author says outright that it can help build up a critical mass of brand recognition.

But the author's point is that once you reach that critical mass, advertising may begin to cannibalize your organic search results because users click on your ad instead of clicking on your site in the search results.

I own a copy of "Ogilvy on Advertising" I bought in the 1980s. In it, David Ogilvy basically says, "test, test, test." That's the message here. Test. The advertising you're doing could be useless.

I'm not sure I agree that when you reach a certain point, ALL advertising is useless. Maybe when you reach the point where most of your advertising has no ROI and is cannibalizing your organic SEO, you need to change your spend and try to find ways to get your ads onto search results that don't feature your site.

If you find that works, you can then adjust your SEO and see if you can make that advertising go to zero ROI too. Lather, rinse, repeat.

'Whilst most of HN is employed by advertising companies and their offshoots ...'

If a man knowingly supports a cause that is against his financial interest, thats worth paying attention to

It's not useless, it's predatory, deceiving, and outright hostile. I literally have to screen my entire network to avoid being tracked by it within my own home. I don't answer phone calls because of it. I have to screen media for my children so they're not manipulated by it.

Sounds like you're heavily manipulated by it already.

I think you're intentionally being flippant at my expense, but it's impossible to live in society and avoid advertising's influence.

Facebook and Twitter will adjust who you see content from to increase your likelihood of interacting with advertisement. As more and more social interaction happens online, this can influence who your friends are if you're not careful.

I see no reason to deride someone trying to wrest back some control.