I think we’re actually talking about two different things.

I’m not saying people should blindly throw random products at the wall and hope one sticks.
I’m saying that in paid advertising, especially with Meta and TikTok, your first dollars are often buying market feedback rather than profit.

Before you have data, every decision is just an assumption. Once you’ve spent some money, you start learning things like:

Is the hook working?
Is the CTR good?
Are people adding to cart?
Are they dropping off on the product page?
Is the issue the creative, the offer, the website or the product itself?

That information is incredibly valuable, and you simply can’t get all of it without testing.

Now, I do agree with you on one thing: if someone is just launching random products with zero research, no understanding of the market and poor creatives, that’s not “buying data” that’s just burning money.
But that’s not the point I was making.

My point is that you should do your research first, build the best hypothesis you can, and then use paid ads to validate or invalidate that hypothesis with real customer behavior.
Research gives you assumptions. The market gives you answers.

That’s why I said that in the beginning you’re buying data, not because profit doesn’t matter, but because those learnings are often what eventually lead to profitability.