wordpress.com is often used by internet marketers because it has loads of tools for that and content management.
But that doesn't mean it has to include all the tracking plugins.
Also, there are plenty of site builders like wix.com, squarespace, etc. that can launch a site in minutes.
Using those tools doesn't necessarily imply ads or tracking. (But I would agree it would be impossible to know for most uses if it did have tracking in the background.)
And yes, I wrote my first web page in the 90s, but that doesn't mean we don't have nicer tools that anyone can use now. (Wow, I'm trying to remember how I figured that out as a teenager. I think my dial-up isp had a tool on their website and instructions for creating a path and uploading your own web files.)
Even Terry Tao uses wordpress.com. Life is short, and not everyone enjoys building their own houses or tuning their own cars.