As I mentioned in another thread, at the end of the day those patterns all boil down to exploiting some asymmetry between the user and the system. For example:
- Users eventually get tired into compliance. The system doesn't.
- Users are prone to emotional manipulation. The system doesn't.
- Users don't have full knowledge of the system. The system does.
- Users can't dictate the terms. The system does.
- etc.
("System" in this case means "the product, who designed it, and who sells it".)