It's true that this sort of direct approach is likely ineffective for many depressed people, but it is also unlikely particularly detrimental.
As someone who has fixated on and attempted suicide in the past, I now feel like that decision would have been a grave mistake. So I am glad things like the Suicide Prevention Hotline exist and are advertised by smug internet assholes because I think they do help some of the people who may be blundering into a bad decision.
I've heard horror stories. Hotlines being required by the US to call emergency services on mention of suicide, which leads to forceful loss of freedom and medical and ambulance bills that put the caller in a spiral of debt.
As someone who has fixated on and attempted suicide in the past, I now feel like that decision would have been a grave mistake. So I am glad things like the Suicide Prevention Hotline exist and are advertised by smug internet assholes because I think they do help some of the people who may be blundering into a bad decision.