The DVD screensaver was perfect: unobtrusive and did what it was supposed to do: prevent your CRT screen from burning-in an image. On top of that, it gave you something to look forward to when it would perfectly hit a corner (which some people thought was a myth; sadly the GIF version does not).
Now, any screen in your home is fair game for intrusive ads. Why make something simple, elegant, functional, and unobtrusive when that otherwise idle (or even in-use!) screen can be crammed with ads.
I do. It was great.
Many years later Uniqlo released the uniqlock. It was a clock screensaver that had “seasons” which were advertisements for their seasonal clothing releases but it wasn’t really obvious? It was that era where advertising was stupid and weird and “subversive” but it meant we got a cool screensaver that was updated for like 6 years with new content for free. Normally I despise advertising but this was the kind that was up front about it: it was like here’s a thing, check it out, it’s free, no data collection. Simpler times.
Unfortunately it was made in flash and died many years ago when flash was kill. That hasn’t stopped people who were also fans of it from recreating it although unfortunately said site doesn’t work great on mobile and is a website, not a screensaver, but still nice to be able to see it again