I think you hit the nail on the head - people tend to think of push (outbound) marketing as "ads" while they don't think as much about passive ads.

It's true that it's harder to do push / outbound marketing in a way that does not feel annoying. I've seen it done and it seemed like the company was reading my mind in a good constructive way. That's rare though.

It can definitely be done in a way that people don’t mind/accept.

People love movie trailers to the point of seeking out good ones and sharing them. People have come to accept that broadcast media will have ads, but get very annoyed when ads are inserted where they are not expected (ads during an ad break are ok, sports betting ads mid play annoy the shit out of me).