I've been in the same shoes as the Author. The ONLY piece of technology that I have successfully seen actually learn from my usage was Youtube. Just recently, youtube decided I needed a bunch of video game hate videos. But I don't usually want negativity like that, so I pressed not interested on two of them and now they're all gone. This has been the status quo for me for years.

Spotify, Instagram, all those others, it's like the button ENCOURAGES them.

I also stopped getting ads years ago, but it was the same story. Car Ads. I hate cars, I have made it as clear as possible on multiple occasions. Sidebar ads never learn. Amazon never learns. And I bet they keep trying to show me cars to this day.