I disagree. The main recommendations are not ads, they are recommendations. Formerly known as clickbait, but without the full negative connotations that the term has gathered. But still clickbait in that it's a source of distraction, a mechanism for derailing your train of thought.

In small doses, I rather like them. Back when Firefox only displayed 3 or 4 on the new tab page, I even left them enabled. Now that it has the huge grid of options, with a row peeking out above the fold in the classic dark pattern that demands discovery, I have turned them off.

As for ads, yeah, you'll get those by default too. (But there's a checkbox still where you can turn off the sponsored content.)

I just think it's useful to distinguish true ads from stuff that's intended to provide value. (Sure, ads theoretically can occasionally provide value, but the difference is huge.)