> Not really but a friend of mine was scammed out of $40k legit AdSense earnings.

Can you give more details? Are you/he suggesting Google scammed him? Any reason/evidence to believe so?

> As for the quality of AdWords - I have not forgotten about the 500 million dollar fine Google received for pharmacy ads.

Adwords is better when compared to competitors. This does not mean it is perfect. Automation can do only so much.