You're being pedantic. Tracking cookies are, in general, in support of ads.

dTal · on Dec 12, 2021

Which is irrelevant, since the converse does not need to be true - we are talking about tracking cookies.

Postulate 1: This website is free.

Postulate 2: This website does not use tracking cookies.

Theorem 1: Tracking cookies are not required for free websites to exist.

Postulate 3: This website is an ad.

Theorem 2: Ads do not require tracking cookies.

Note that my original comment asserted Theorem 1 only.