"Capitalism charging a fortune to cure you? With stuff that has scary side effects?"
"Have no fear! Now you can buy a bunch of shit that doesn't work, from us! We're also unregulated as fuck so who knows if this stuff messes up your kidneys."
The worst thing, and anyone who had parents who fell for these scams growing up will know this, is parents who will try to 'cure' their neurodivergent kids with rat butt herb or whatever. Have fun spending your formative years incorrectly medicated!
Sure, yes I know there are natural medicines that work for certain things. But the industry as a whole is so gross and predatory. Every so often they'll 'discover' some ancient remedy so they have something new to market. Selling crystals and sage to very ill people who need real treatment. Exploiting sick people who are desperate for a cure is low as hell and I'm surprised (but not surprised) that they can just sell things that do not do the thing they say they do.
Yup, just because willow bark contains [a precursor of] aspirin doesn't mean you should choose it over actual fucking aspirin
Berberine is a good example of your second point though. It has a similar effect on blood sugar to medications like Metformin, but isn't super well researched.
Edited so that some numbnuts doesn't go chewing tree bark to cure a hangover. You probably want to do a decoction for that anyway.
You mean well but the willowbark is misinformation. It contains salacilic acid, which is the pain relieving drug. However it damages the stomach and can cause ulcers.
Aspirin is acetilesalacilic acid, the acetile group is cleaved off the useful drug primarily after the stomach which makes it a much much safer thing to take.