The hacker seeking a technical solution is, I think, at least in part a consequence of the individualism that's so much a part of especially the Silicon Valley hacking era; along with the libertarian leanings of especially early hacker culture.
Seeking change at a societal level is the exact opposite of the hacker's free-wheeling individualism, but it's the only way to actually accomplish change at a societal level.
You're right, we'll never change advertising just by running individual ad blockers, and we'll never change privacy controls by trying to mask our identities; that has to happen through laws and larger society. We have to have a right to privacy and freedom from advertising be a thing that everyone wants, the bus driver, the butcher, hair stylist, etc., not just what we can foist on our immediate family and social circle.
I think the catch is that a hacker mindset can easily come up with 3 different laws that people would try to pass and then 4 different hacks to each of those laws. It enables easily seeing how to exploit the very poor quality of code (and yes, while many of those exploits are forbidden by judges who don't take kindly to them, others are deemed acceptable and some lawyers specialize in).
I'm glad I'm not the only one saying it in a thread, for once.
> We can't solve a political problem with purely technical solutions.
This is something that is sometimes hard to accept for the hacker mindset, but it's absolutely true and an important thing to realize.