If asked, I honestly said that I didn't want to associate myself with a site that made such heavy use of dark patterns and felt so very, very sketchy to use, and everyone respected that answer (at least to my face).
(I did have to create a LinkedIn account once, for the sake of a previous employer who wanted their small company to not look like it was just the founders who worked there, but I made it using the company email address and never updated it after creation, so I don't really count that as ME using LinkedIn, more my employer through me.)
