These notifications are bundled together for some reason. So if I want to be notified when my subscriptions renew themselves, I have to also be notified of random games going on sale, too.

Here is Google showing blatant malicious compliance to their own standards. "You want security notifications for payments made through your account? Have a side of ads with that". They've fallen real low since the days of "do no harm" 😞

"Do no harm", that's the Hippocratic Oath.
- "Do no harm to the stockholders" would be the contemporary take.
- More like the Hippocratic Option amirite? 🤜🤛

There should be a legal requirement to call a targeted advertisement a targeted advertisement. Being allowed to call them "recommendations" only makes these assholes feel emboldened to push ads where people wouldn't normally accept them. Microsoft is pulling that dirty trick as well.

Yeah in Europe I'd send this to my local data authorities and the ombudsman

asshole design

They know exactly what they're doing. They're never ignorant of this shit, it's 100 percent intentional. So much for not being evil.

Yeah Starbucks does the same thing with "Promotions and Order Status". :/

Wow this is unethical. They should all be separate toggles.
As does SkipTheDishes. Want to be notified that your food is almost here? Fuck you, be bombarded with promotions and deals you didn't ask for.
- Why would anybody name a food company STD lol
The management executive who took this decision deserves a punch in the face.
To be fair, most of these apps were made before the notification categories were invented and they don't keep the consultants that made the initial app, or want to pay for the change.
- Aw poor corporate behemoth doesn't want to spend the pennies (compared to profits) to do things right. If we're being fair, fuck them for cheaping out at our expense.

There's an app, and I'm sure others like it, called Tidy Panel that lets you block notifications based on the content they have. The free version let's you block a handful, but you need premium for unlimited. For you, the free might be enough.

Also, the BuzzKill app does this and it's beautiful with Material design.
Tasker also have the autonotification plugin which let you set any rules and actions you want on notifications

I completely disabled all notifications from Google play. There isn't a single one worth of it.

That said, when I open it (like once every 2 months) I have a permanent dot on the notification area, with a notification that goes about 'plz enable notifications so we can spam you'

Just like dating apps, if you want notification of a message or match, you have to get ad notifications daily

Joke’s on you. I get daily ads WITHOUT getting message or match notifications. I have successfully decoupled.
- decoupled
  
  Assuming it's a pun
Yeah that’s horrible. I have a strict policy of turning off any notification that is not a direct message from a person to me or a reminder I set myself. If crap gets bundled like this, I turn it off altogether.

When I used Tinder, I just checked the app every now and then and I remember people unmatching me again because I didn’t reply quickly enough. Online dating is so fucking toxic.
- I put "Messages will arrive in three to five business days" in my bio, and that solved the problem nicely. Now, I simply don't get matches at all 😎

This should be better with /e/OS or lineageOS, but you have to jump through several hoops (and often lose your warranty) when you install them instead of your default Android OS.

Unfortunately most devices block them completely, but the Pixel phones are supported (as far as I know).

How would an AOSP fork help with an app not using the notifications API correctly? Just magically rewrite the app?
- AOSP forks don't contain the play store
  
  Edit: Well, some do, but I don't recommend those
My gripe with non android os is that they usually don't have access to bank apps, and those are a must
- i run rooted LinageOS 21 with the Zygisk Assistant and Play Integrity Fix modules. No app can detect i use a custom rooted rom. Google wallet and my banking apps work just fine. And i can do whatever the fuck I want with my phone since it's rooted. For example with AdAway all ads are gone. I love it.
- Whenever I tested it, my banking app worked on non-rooted e/os. A rooted device however is not accepted by my banking app.
Custom ROMs on Google Pixel don't void your warranty and its super easy to revert back to stock ROM
- literally Google supplies a free program to flash most phones back to stock. it's easier than ever

you can unsubscribe from "recommendations" separately tbf (or decline subscription in the firsr place)

I had to specifically mute all of my notifications because I couldn't find out what app was causing them and it was driving me nuts. Steps below for a Pixel phone if anyone is interested in how to mute notifications without having to go into vibrate mode.

For a Pixel 7 phone:

Settings -> Sound & Vibration -> Default notification sound -> My Sounds -> None

I had to specifically mute all of my notifications because I couldn't find out what app was causing them and it was driving me nuts.

I've been doing that for years. I only have a handful of apps with audio notifications, basically the most important ones that need my attention right away. Everything else gets vibrate.
You can also just look at your "recent apps" under settings, if a notification popped off in the last 30s and you didn't see a window then it'll almost certainly be the top app in "most recent"

It's a glitch / purposeful design in some apps where the actual popup window isn't set to actually stick around so it just makes a ghost noise. For me it was some random app I installed for one niche purpose and forgot about

I think you can click it and choose from within it. Normally on android, when there is a switch with a line next to it, that means it's clickable and has more options.

Unfortunately, this is as granular as you're able to get with the notification controls for the Play Store app.
- From the application itself, you can disable the Deals and Promotions.
  
  I was wondering why I have not seen any ads even though I have this active for the app. So there you go.
I just checked my options on my Samsung and there is no individual option to fine tune that

It's designed that way on purpose.

I always got receipts and cancellation infos via the mail connected to the Google account. One time there was no balance and I had no payment methods set up and I got "Your Google Play balance is too low to pay for your {app name} subscription. To keep your subscription active, please add credit or a new payment method."

So, if you get email notifications you probably don't need that.

Not true on my Sony experia, in Finland. So I am thinking that instead of adjusting the settings for alerts, maybe check settings of the store itself? The play store app, like this screen? Maybe. Dunno if that's the difference here.

They might give you the possibility to opt out thanks to living in the EU, the OP might not be as lucky.