When I've seen someone have those referral links and I can see that the way he introduces it is not that humble, I would usually not sign up under his links, and most people right now are doing this, like if they saw a referral link, they would usually go direct to the website, not under them. It is really not working now as people are already aware of it as they prefer not to be under someone else or they just want those referrers to earn.
It's true what you say. If someone wants to spread his referral link, he must introduce it honestly by saying everything he knows so that people who visit his site can realize that what he is doing is really honest. After all, people who search from a search engine and then visit sites can tell which are honest and which are not.
And it will make people volunteer to hit its referral link and become its referral member. But nowadays, people don't pay attention to that and just spread the referral link without paying attention to the honesty in giving reviews. And this makes many people lazy to join via the referral link.
And that's why people who just spread their referral link without being based on honesty will not get any results and will consider it a waste of time.
Well, I think before we blame people who share or spread referral links without writing a proper and honest review of the platform they are promoting, lets first and foremost find out how many people out there have the time to read this days.
The above is actually based on my experience with sharing referral links, I've had instances where I sat down to write a good and honest review of a platform I've used and have come to trust, and then at the end, include my referral link for any one who wished to join the same platform, but at the end of the day, I still discover that the post perform really badly simply because, most people on the internet are so lazy to read this days..
I personally believe the only way to record some success in the referral business, is to have a huge followership in any or all social platforms where you operate, could be Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc.