The reason those third parties have to resort to tracking is because advertising fraud is rampant on the internet and the first party advertisers want some assurance that they aren't just throwing money away.
This does not sound correct to me. (I was in the digital ad industry.) The interest in conversion counting is not just because you can't trust views/clicks. It's because conversions are the most useful event to track. You might be paying for views, but your conversions are your best proxy for ROI on one ad campaign vs. another.
I agree with your prior point that the first party who is selling ad space doesn't want to think about it. That part is entirely true.
This does not sound correct to me. (I was in the digital ad industry.) The interest in conversion counting is not just because you can't trust views/clicks. It's because conversions are the most useful event to track. You might be paying for views, but your conversions are your best proxy for ROI on one ad campaign vs. another.
I agree with your prior point that the first party who is selling ad space doesn't want to think about it. That part is entirely true.