Obviously, there are plenty of reasons to decry this. However, actually paying the end user is a million times better than the harvesting that has been going on for years with not much tangible benefit to users.

I have never heard the phrase “runs on the edge”, and the article uses some form of it a half dozen times.

My only results for “edge devices” refer to networking. Is that what they’re trying to say?

I don’t love to defend advertising/marketing, but your statement implies that once something has been advertised, organic interest/enjoyment becomes impossible.

Sure, there might’ve been a big ad push that rocketed mayo to the top of people’s condiment lists. But there are dozens of other things that could also create interest (new foods that pair well with it, new recipes that are shared culturally, loss of a competing product, diet changes)