There's several examples where Google's SEO has actively made things worse, even before you look at ads. And to be clear, I do agree that advertising has also done massive damage to the web.

All the long, rambling stories you see before recipes? That's just there so the recipes can rank higher.

I can't remember the source, but I also remember a website adding AI generated slop to cater to Google's wishes, and leaving a page to explain to normal users why they did so.

It's also seen when you look at YouTube videos, where now it's basically necessary to have a clickbait thumbnail + title + reminders to like and subscribe.

It really is Google's fault. Those blogs SEO goals are only targeting top Google positions.

Google is an ad company that specifically lets SEO fill up its search results because those websites make them the most money per click. If Google continued to fight SEO abuse like they were literally founded to do then we wouldn’t be in this mess.