Even if that is true, what you are saying is, essentially, that the ads-driven exploitative economy is a very expensive innovation engine.

It is then useful to ask: if innovation is what we want, do there exist engines that aren't quite as expensive?

If the market economy has more of a human face than outright slavery, there's no reason to believe that it's impossible to do better: a Copernican position would say that we'd be no more likely to be correct than an ancient Egyptian who claims it's impossible to do better than state slavery.