Your first statement contradicts the second one, which only confirms a theory that recruiters aren't the smartest people. If you want to argue that ageism doesn't exist, please provide some stats from your former work. I believe that the real situation is even worse than we can observe exactly because people over 40 had to clutch for the old uncool systems/languages just to keep their job.
It's not ridiculous: I'm partly bold so I always shave my head. I tried to remove graduation years from my resume and did not find it's useful; it would only work if ageism was a sin of a few. Now I keep all my cards open: if my age would be the reason I prefer to skip erroneous interviews that hiding it would have brought (wasted 2 months and 4 interviews, Amazon, yeah?).
If we are going with anecdotal evidence, I'm 55, in top 1% in my field with comprehensive knowledge of modern and cutting-edge technologies. After age 45 was denied promotion and had to look for another employment; was fired (from another employer) at age 52, was out of work for 7 months and had to take a position way below my level. Still there but could be fired at any moment (cost cuts, esp. under current circumstances). Receiving a lot of calls from headhunters based on my excellent linkedin profile, but never went pass first interview in 3 years.
Counterfeiting killed reliable brands. Try to find a good charger or surge protector: on amazon they all are fake and nobody else is selling them - it's impossible to compete with amazon's fakes.
Not only fake positive reviews, amazon postings are saturated with fake negative reviews and counterfeit and knock-off products (95% of cheap electronics). But it's not an amazon problem, it's a customer problem. Amazon monopolized online market and destroyed other sellers. If they bring order it would lead to honest prices for honest products and would allow other sellers back to the market. Why should amazon do so? It's better for them to forfeit this market than give up a share of it.