Perhaps that's the trick -- if you make an ad look less like an ad, it's 0.1% more likely to convert.

And Google still hasn't figured out how to best their search advertising network business, so I assume that people click on ads, even if I'm not in that demographic.

You should really watch a child play a game that has interstitial ads. It's quite obvious that they often click on ads because they want to learn more (maybe not fully convert, but intentionally click).

Yes...?