Comment by nvm0n2

Cookie banners aren't designed to optimize engagement, they're forced on websites by the EU.

Paywalls aren't designed to optimize engagement, they kill it! Paywalls slaughter almost all your traffic and kill social media virality dead, but they can still work out better than trying to fight ad blocking.

Spam, well, most spam is short. They want to get your attention and bring you to their shop. It's not really about doomscrolling from there on.

So if you're complaining about both ads and paywalls then really you just want content made by volunteers for free. But as Wikipedia has shown, that can work great for a short time until the normies get exhausted and move on, leaving behind the truly crazy fanatics to stay in charge. It's not necessarily better.