You turned them off at some point. To turn them back on: On a new tab, click the cog in the top right. Tick "Sponsored shortcuts".

Compared to the Google panopticon... I can live with it.

If you have your new tab set to being blank it might never have shown sponsored shortcuts.

My new tab has been blank for probably over a decade now

I think it's about the sponsored shortcuts in the default home screen.

I've had them as well (3 or 4, can't remember which ones. Amazon's search engine might have been one of them), removed them, done and done.

It's not a big deal, but it's still something.