My hunch is that people like you and the HN crowd are the outliers. The majority of people don't actually hate cold emails or what we perceive as "spam".
For example my wife and mother love advertisements for discount deals. They actively look for them, and object when I try to clean their computer/mailbox from that sort of stuff. The last time I said this on HN, I received sarcastic mocking replies, which just prove the point that it's the HN crowd that's "weird".
I employ ad blockers, mass delete cold emails, and intentionally do not click "sponsored" links (even if they happen to be the one I really need). And yet, I had to "teach" my wife to avoid clicking ad links, and install ad blocker on her computer. And I assume most "regular" people are like this.
And "our" mentality, at least in my case, makes it hard to run a business as I see cold emails and ads as scam.
> and intentionally do not click "sponsored" links (even if they happen to be the one I really need).
But why? You don't feel compelled at all to contribute towards the financial health of the free product you're consuming? With just a tap of your finger?
For example my wife and mother love advertisements for discount deals. They actively look for them, and object when I try to clean their computer/mailbox from that sort of stuff. The last time I said this on HN, I received sarcastic mocking replies, which just prove the point that it's the HN crowd that's "weird".