I think we agree on a lot, things were easier before, tubes are overall hurting conversion rates etc.. and really the part we are hung up on is the word "control"
We can "control" how much traffic we get, buy traffic, SEO, link trades etc. What we put into it effort wise has an effect on the resulting overall traffic. Thus we are in control of the amount of traffic we get for the most part.
Your point of we cant "control" the users meaning they are free to do what they want and we cant drag them to a join page and make them click. Thats obvious however you can definitely persuade their decisions again by matching up the best quality content for the designated niches, by playing to their emotions or curiosity. Etc etc
With all the thread we have on gfy about how bad tubes are (daily) and how bad tgps were.. the time spent posting and bitching about it could have go towards trying to generate more traffic to throw into your "sales funnel" or "filter' as well as time spent trying to understand how to better convert the traffic you have. As well as time spent trying to find better ways to recycle the shit traffic that you filter out.
Its like panning for gold, you put yourself in the right spot, you have the right equipment, you are setup to sell the non gold materials for small money to recoup some of your investment, then you start panning... the more panning you can do the better your odds are at finding more gold. If you find no gold there, you move to a different niche and continue.
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If your filter and funnel are setup well, and your destination point / product is solid (and you are able to evolve them on the fly) then the more traffic you dump into it the better your results period. I dont see a way to argue that.
"More traffic does not produce more sales and if you ignore the customer he will show you whose right. HE IS."
More traffic produces more opportunities to make sales, if you dont or cant capitalize on that, then its not the customer who is right, its you who is wrong. Stop thinking that this is a you vs the customer battle and think of it as a you and the customer battle vs boredom and horniness lol.

Go get em big guy!
(Back later need to go submit CCBill crap, trying to start a paysite hahaha)