Advertisers have no incentive to promote better products than what the competition offers, they only have incentive to get people to buy their inferior products that provide them better margins than the competition.

> not many people would know about—let alone buy—video games

So you are saying in the absence of manipulative ads, kids would be consuming drugs rather than games. I highly doubt that. And from personal experience, my brother is a Minecraft addicted nutter because of peers pushing him towards it, not advertising. I've never seen ads for Minecraft, yet it is one of the most successful video game properties ever.