For years YouTubes top hero banner purposely loaded quite a bit later than the rest of the page.
I never noticed it, until I moved to Spain for a while. Our place had slow internet, and I watched my roommates hit the ad multiple times a day on accident because it loaded right into where the search box was exactly as you’d naturally click there.
I have seen that kind of thing a few different places and I just plain decline to believe that it isn't done with knowledge.
Active items that are already clickable that change location as a page loads drive me nuts, but these particularly convenient examples add another dimension to that.
It might not be done with malice aforethought, so much as wilful ignorance; blind pursuit of metrics combined with a lack of any incentive to challenge the assumption that all clicks are intentional.
I never noticed it, until I moved to Spain for a while. Our place had slow internet, and I watched my roommates hit the ad multiple times a day on accident because it loaded right into where the search box was exactly as you’d naturally click there.