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@PeterLudemann @dalias @lauren Emails get blocked as spam trivially.

Ads often don't get blocked and ad targeting helps establish a probabilistic match for the specific filter you set on the ad campaign.

Yes, you do need Google or some other targeting ad network for maximal effect.

Firehose HTML+JavaScript email is considerably less useful (and pixel-size remote resource images were the common way to leak viewing status & some request data instead of JavaScript in HTML emails anyway).

but I suppose you'd see that as Google trying to stop a competitor

It is. Especially when considered in conjunction with how many spam operators operate off gmail's own servers that see little to no enforcement against them even when actively reported by humans.