If you're downvoting this because you haven't tuned out yet don't consider yourself addicted, I'm really curious why you still engage with politics on platforms like Twitter? The friends of mine that still do it talk about it like it's something they really wish they could quit, hence I think "addiction" is a fair label, though some genuinely believe it's important to have voices on the platform countering some of the more heinous things being posted.
I don't think "monetizing" is the right word because if that was happening, they'd be making money, which they aren't.
Twitter was making $4bn a year, that they couldn't turn a profit on that doesn't mean it wasn't lucrative.
And just because it makes $2B/yr vs $4b/yr or whatever doesn't mean it cant sustain as a business indefinitely. The bulk of the critique of Twitter these days is whether Musk can make a profit on $40B as if that's what will determine Twitter's survival long term.
Musk losing billions of dollars in the short term is a private loss for bankers and his own vast ever growing wealth. It's not exactly something that kills a business in the timeline people are hoping for. If anything there's probably a long line of B-tier investors willing to prop it up long enough for the dividends to pay off.
Far shittier companies have survived for much longer on much less.
It's since been gamified and weaponized for electoral gain. The algorithms pushed it too hard and monetized division to the point where all but the most addicted people have tuned out.