Hey @cbovis,
So, there’s a couple of things at play. Being server-side, Netlify Analytics will obtain numbers based on all users – even those with ad/traffic blockers enabled. This does also include scrapers and crawlers. There’s several Netlify Analytics reviews and comparisons online which discuss the pros and cons rather well.
Personally, I see Netlify Analytics used on projects because it’s GDPR compliant. It’s nice to not have to create consent banners!
There’s no right or wrong – it boils down to your individual use case and what’s important to you.