I don't think that's right. If I use a product, like it, and tell my friends about it, that isn't advertising because it isn't funded by anyone who gains from the purchase of the product. Similarly, Consumer Reports isn't advertising, because they are funded by their members. General review orgs like The Wirecutter may or may not be advertising, depending on how successful they are at preventing manufacturers from influencing their reviews.

If I don't know I have a problem to solve I probably don't have a problem to solve, or at least not a problem big enough that it requires me to be forced to consume hours of advertisement per year

You might have problems but you haven't thought about them, or in some case you can't even verbalize them.

Other times problems just become background noise, and they're there in plain sight but you're used to them - and they can have negative impact on your life.

We're not machines, problems aren't binary.

Now if you say that we as a society, sometimes, value the "wrong things" (which is subjective) and see problems that aren't a big deal, it's true. But you can't pin that on advertising - those are symptoms of poor education systems, poor health, and I'd go as far as poor value systems.

From friends, online communities, search, ...

In some places it's illegal to publicly advertise alcohol or indicate where it's sold. People still manage to get drunk without a problem.

Google convinced manufacturers that they should also advertise but it was working just fine without the advertisements.