In the case of Google it is very much intentional, and documented. Good search means fewer search attempts and that means fewer displayed ads.

I'm denying it, at the very least. Those claims do not hold water.

In fact, if you assume that these claims are outright wrong the rest of the questions in the post basically answer themselves.

Or, we could choose not to use slopware. Especially when they appear to mostly be wrappers around software we can configure ourselves.

It's hard to responsibly use tech built irresponsibly.