The Amazon story is really old and Ubuntu did hear the critical voices and reverted the change. The terminal ads can be annoying on servers but you can turn them off.
https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/Disable_dynamic_motd_and_motd_news_spam_on_Ubuntu_18.04.html
If you want to throw dirt on Ubuntu, let's talk about Snaps and the messy Snap Store and how the current Ubuntu site looks like (not desktop user friendly really), and what they did to LXD
Fully agree! I've read that devices that run on electricity are not so loud.It's the mobile ones running on fossil fuel that are so loud.Even with ear-plugs in it is distracting me to be productive or to relax.I've talked with people I know, and told them about the unbearable noise.Their response : "Yeah, but think about elderly people that could slip because of all the leaves".Well, how did people cope with this decades ago when these loud devices were not super popular ?