Is it possible that most people are like you and advertisers don’t make money off you but there’s a small amount of people where advertising works and advertisers make big money off those people?
I'm sure there are some "whales" who buy a lot of things they don't need, as suggested earlier, but I also believe people are entitled to the freedom to make their own decisions even if others disagree with those decisions.
That being said, I wouldn't agree that people like me don't provide value to advertisers. Aside from the fact that I do occasionally buy things from ads:
* I also get curious and research products or product categories that I learn about from ads, which translates into increased word-of-mouth, even if I never personally have a need for the thing
* If I see a lot of high-quality and/or high-profile ads for a certain brand over time, I'll be more likely to remember it and my perception of its legitimacy will improve; if I end up ever needing that kind of thing, I'll include the brand in my research of potential options
* Even if I've already purchased the thing, higher perceived legitimacy of its vendor on my part due to advertising presence could still help increase my confidence in its likely longevity, level of support, and mainstreamness, which might potentially translate into mentioning it in certain contexts where I wouldn't have otherwise
If I had to guess, that's probably where the majority of value in advertising lies. Not pure click-through rate or direct conversion, but contribution to broader mindshare. The distinction might be meaningless from a starting point of low or zero mindshare, since the marginal value of any additional mindshare at that point will be higher and the necessary timeline to produce a financial return may be tighter, but a Fortune 500 company probably doesn't buy a TV ad spot with the expectation that a handful of shopaholics will suddenly feel compelled to buy new cars or whatever on the spot.
