[traek]

That's not a feature of advertising as a business model, it's just a feature of growth-focused businesses. The same forces apply to products that you pay for with money. For a very obvious example, just look at Candy Crush.

[shkkmo]

It is not even remotely a feature of all growth-focused businesses.

For example, Slack is a growth focused company that uses a subscription model for revenue and has no incentive to maximize time spent in their App.

You are correct that advertising, microtransactions and gambling lead to very similar business model incentives.