Alternative exists, but probably won't make that much money...
How ? Competitive gaming requires intense uninterrupted focus for 30 min to 1 h periods (which is what got me out of it).
CSGO? LoL? I play one game and 30-60 minutes of my day gone, half the time to a slow loss. I can't justify it as an adult steadily losing more and more of my free time anymore.
This is technically true, but in most team based multiplayer games you actually get much shorter focus intervals due to breaks and pauses like dying (time to respawn or end of round, which can take up to multiple minutes) or running to the action from spawn (games like Overwatch).
Also the team aspect hides much of it so a lot of players go "on autopilot" too in these games, you have to keep in mind that the far majority of players in the super popular games plays at a lower level.
Compared to this a game like Starcraft 2 (1on1 competitive) actually requires uninterrupted focus for a full game with basically no breaks or pauses, but 1v1 competitive multiplayer games are not as popular as team based games.
That said, I'm not a gamer and I rarely play games now.
That's a pretty wild statement. Dota 2 is one of the most supported games out there with giant patches coming multiple times per year. Perhaps only World of Warcraft can claim to be better supported. Games like RDR2 are build-and-forget. They get no long term support.
Additionally there is the difference between playing a game to experience some story (like RDR2) and playing a game because it is challenging and fun (Dota 2). These story based games like RDR2 can be great experiences in short bursts (up to a 100 hours tops), but are incredibly boring for someone who plays 4+ hours per day and puts thousands of hours into a specific game. It's like playing tic-tac-toe when you're a chess grandmaster. Mind numbingly boring.
The chime you get from a last hit/collecting runes, The cosmetic loot boxes, e&.
I had to quit cold turkey after 1500 hours because I realized I was wasting my life.
It's sad that dota2 is far from the worst offender and I would argue one of the best f2p models, but it's addicting non the less.
Is there a parallel between the advertising industry and their ever increasing quest to mine more data and the games industry with their incessant need for DLC, microtransactions and whatnot?
It seems that middle-management/VC's in both of these industries are pushing the same processes (or could we use "dogma"?) without any empirical evidence that what they are doing is the right thing, all the while patting each other on the back because that's the way everyone else does it...
Edit: edited for clarity
There is: being "data driven", which is a short for "we need to tighten the feedback loop in our revenue optimization algorithm". The most annoying players in both industries are essentially trying to run a PID controller around the people they're monetizing. For that to work, interactions must be frequent, telemetry must be extensive.