I mean, sure, but let's not put the cart before the horse. Achievements exist for analytics. That's why Microsoft built the system. And some developers cared and used them that way (for example, Bethesda). Some developers did not care (look at the Avatar game everyone rented just to get a quick and easy 1000GS). And yes, some achievements were well designed and funny.

Then there's Nintendo saying they will never support achievements for analytics, yet some of their games have them solely for the player's enjoyment, such as Animal Crossing. Rather than Gamerscore (or Trophies), you get Nook Miles which can be used to buy some things. The system is completely optional to engage with, but provides that same/similar "dopamine rush". And that's fine.

So yeah, not pretending anything, just amazed that most people don't understand why they exist in the first place.

That said, I think I recall reading that Xbox provided/provides publishers with a means to hide "Achievement Hunters" from the analytics entirely. That is to say, if as a player, your goal is to simply collect all the achievements, and/or maximise your Gamerscore (or Trophy collection), your metrics are less valuable to the publisher than someone who is just playing the game normally and the achievements show the choice they made. For example, not only did Fallout 3 have the karma choices (3 separate achievements for each level that had one), Oblivion had two mutually exclusive achievements for picking a faction in the DLC. And BioWare games make use of this a lot. So yes, while they can see which one you went for first, it's not useful information because the one you went for last is the one you stuck with. So they just throw out that data. Or they can.

So two things you can do to mitigate your data being used to vote for how the next game will turn out: One, play the game after the next game has come out. They should no longer care about the analytics. Two, get all the achievements. Your data is less valuable. On the flip side, if you want your data to matter, play the game when it's relatively new, and make choices based on your morality rather than what you think it should be.

I'd also like to point out that there are a handful of games that collect this information without using the achievement system and show you the data. All of the first three Life is Strange games do it. (I haven't played the two newest ones.) As Dusk Falls, which was published by Microsoft, does it as well. I think the Telltale games (e.g. The Walking Dead) do it, too. What's really cool about this system is, at the end of each chapter, you can not only see how your choices stacked up against gamers around the world, but you can also filter it down to those on your friends list (local to Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, or Steam). As Dusk Falls takes it a step further, giving you a preview of how other choices branch the story in other ways. Personally, I think this system is the best system. They're still collecting data on how you play, but they're presenting that data back to you in a meaningful way.