alt Hacker NewsSubsidizing products does not mean the consumer spends less.
Who pays for those ads/tracking/etc... companies that want to sell stuff to the consumer. Congratulations, subsidization just introduced more middlemen which extract more profit from the consumer.
The simpler things can be, the cheaper things can be.
The goal isn't to pay minimal money. If that was the goal, you strap an air filter to a box fan and use an esp32 to turn the power on and off. Or a solid state relay if you want to get fancy with different power levels.
The goal is to do harm to anti-consumer companies. Buying their (subsidized) hardware, and then breaking their lock-in so you and others aren't shown ads or forced to pay useless subscriptions, harms the company.