I can't speak for the parent, or anyone else for that matter, but it does not appeal to me to burn ingenuity trying solely to figure out how better to get people to buy stuff. It's an arms race, where you expend more effort simply for a better chance at winning a zero-sum game. I'd prefer to work on projects where, rather than fighting to capture scraps of consumer disposable income, I become the spring that sources a mighty river of created value.