Yeah I think the author needs a dose of reality about how many users do anything on a site. Something that 1 in 476 visitors do isn't that bad. Especially when there's no real ongoing cost to doing so.

I didn't see any statement about normalizing the share click as bot or human.

With the continual passage of laws restricting social media for minors, URL copy and paste will become the standard methods for sharing.

Personally, I would never click the share button because sharing with a person or group of people is often through email, SMS, work chat, or here.

Businesses that use Facebook to communicate events are actively restricting their consumer base because not everyone wants to use it or will. A standard web-site is the only method to communicate openly with users.

Especially on government websites like gov.uk serve. It's not a website with cute beanie hats you'd want to share on your socials.

Share buttons got a 5-7% CTR on the last social media project I built and were responsible for a huge number of inbound referrals. Lots of long tail SEO too.

If the trillion dollar tech companies have them, there's a reason.