Yes. Because they want to own your attention and that only works if they are interfacing directly to you.
I remember that Samsung was at one time offering to play non-skippable full-screen apps on their newest 8K OLED TVs and their argument was precisely that these ads will reach those rich people who normally pay extra to avoid getting spammed with ads. Or going with your executive assistant example, there are situations where it makes sense to bribe them to get access to you and/or your data. E.g. "evil maid attack".
I remember that Samsung was at one time offering to play non-skippable full-screen apps on their newest 8K OLED TVs and their argument was precisely that these ads will reach those rich people who normally pay extra to avoid getting spammed with ads. Or going with your executive assistant example, there are situations where it makes sense to bribe them to get access to you and/or your data. E.g. "evil maid attack".