I agree they're full of dark patterns (false "only x rooms left at this price" statements, misleading UI that implies the place you're looking at has just been booked), but frankly that's the lesser of two evils compared to a site that seemingly doesn't want your business. And while they do make you create an account, I entered my information once years ago and can now book a hotel in any town I want to go to, which is something nowhere else can match (if hotel websites reliably supported SSO that would be as good, but we're a long way off that at the moment).