and it’s always somehow better and worse at the same time.

Humanity is always on a meandering route between utopia and dystopia, never arriving at either.

why the hell would anyone play a game with ads?

It’s Microsoft. They made Embrace, Extend, Extinguish their way of life for decades. They can’t conceive competition. And they’re not really that interested anymore in the consumer market. They want to squeeze whatever they can from there before the market shrinks and aim their products more at the premium and business market who has all the money these days.