This is where you lost me. You assume:
1. There is a free service that allows you to search products. PS - it's called Google/Amazon.
2. There is a free service that allows you to read product reviews. PS - it's called Google/Amazon.
> To use the original example, googling for "good USB charger" and then buying one via an ad will not give you any guarantees that the USB charger is good.
And please do tell me, where does this perfect search capability exist in the world that allows one to search for goods and services free from all advertising.
Even a Turkish Bazaar merchant will tell you that the tube of toothpaste they're selling you last only a month.
That an alternative is not easily available, does not somehow make the existing services ethical.
That said, and the mystical service is called your friends/family/neighbors/colleagues/etc. It ain't perfect, but it's remarkably effective. In the 2-300 people in your first and second degree networks, there's probably a few anecdotes to help you find a good product.
It even has a neat name: word of mouth.
Tangent, but damn I wish reviews were reliable nowadays. They've fallen to deceitful practices like fake reviews, and are no better than advertising nowadays.
Trying to conflate the two as equivalent when someone says "ads are toxic" in the context of the online ad industry is doing the argument no good.
> How would you find a USB charger brand if you were unaware of any to begin with?
Why search for a brand, and not a high quality, well reviewed USB charger? To use the original example, googling for "good USB charger" and then buying one via an ad will not give you any guarantees that the USB charger is good. All it guarantees is that they paid the most to get your eyeballs on that particular search.