Maybe not always or even mostly but when tired or getting the basics humans tend to go for what they recognize.

Especially noticeable when travelling and there are choices we are not used to seeing and we see the one brand we recognize.

Making the ads clickable is utilizing the real estate.

(scams that rely on you clicking for nefarious purposes are just scammers being scammers, there will always be scams)

I’ve also seen seemingly normal people argue in favor of user tracking and data harvesting so they could get ads that were more relevant to them. They claimed they genuinely found them useful.

Its about brand recognition they don't really expect you to click just to know that they exist, and are an option when it comes to decision time.

Naturally they have a click to purchase option