My business partner handles our marketing and has been using tactics that feel manipulative to me - playing on people's fears and insecurities to sell our wellness products - and when I bring it up he says I'm being naive about how business works and that our customers are getting value regardless.
More people experience this than they realize.
You're discovering that even businesses with good intentions can involve ongoing ethical negotiations about means and ends, complicated by different comfort levels with persuasion and profit.
“Where Are You with Buddhist economics — right livelihood?”
If this sounds familiar, the Library can help you find the bigger picture.