It's not clearly labeled, it is a very small label with white text on a pale blue background in an already very busy UI. It is clearly made to look like a real search result and not an ad. On top of this, the screenshots are clearly made to mislead the user into thinking that this is the officiel Microsoft authenticator app by having a large text saying "Authenticator for Microsoft" and a second screenshot with a "Microsoft" TOTP entry.
This is an example of a company whose financial incentives are in direct conflict with the interests of their users, and so they choose to be complicit in borderline fraudulent auctivities.
>It's not clearly labeled, it is a very small label with white text on a pale blue background in an already very busy UI.
You piled a whole lot of arguments, but doesn't change the fact that it's still clearly labelled. Besides, you only need to notice this box once to be able to tell whether something marked the same way is an ad or not in the future.
You're absolutely right on the real problem: it's allowed to present itself, totally convincingly to the average / naive user, as Microsoft sanctioned.
It’s not an opinion, the law states that ads must be “clearly” labeled as such, so if you disagree and think Apple is breaking the law, feel free to report them to the FTC and see how far you get.
This is an example of a company whose financial incentives are in direct conflict with the interests of their users, and so they choose to be complicit in borderline fraudulent auctivities.