It can. Just don't use Pocket or disable it.
And it's especially also a different source of income than search engines. They try to differentiate here, in case for example Google's monopoly becomes even more extreme and they push the price down.
And exactly in this vein, a big motivation for Pocket is competing with search engines in general. It tries to be another channel through which users can discover new content, so that Google can't determine everything you believe in without any hindrance.