YANBU!
I hate thinking about what to get people and then buying the stuff which I am almost sure will be wrong.
I also hate getting stuff I don't want (while trying to look pleased) and the guilt I feel afterwards re all the wasted time and money.
Fortunately, we were able to give our children cash for bdays and Xmas as soon as they were old enough to make their own (supervised) choices.
And since then, we have managed to reduce gift giving to the point that now it is zero. (As even weddings tend to ask for cash now?)
Someone once said (can't remember who) that giving a gift imposes an obligation upon the receiver. And I agree. It's an obligation to look appreciative (even if you have to fake it) and a later obligation to reciprocate in some way.
So those of you who think they choose/give thoughtful gifts might be shocked to find out how the recipients of your gifts actually feel unhappy with their gift and would have liked something else. (As so much pretending goes on just to avoid any hurt feelings.)
I also believe that gift giving in our current commercial system is a net loss of money to individuals, as in most cases the gift receiver either wouldn't have chosen to buy that item at all or else would not have spent the amount on it that the giver did. (So they under value the gift by a percentage which could be as much as 100% ie when they just give it away or bin it.)
In the past when obtaining some items might have impossible (eg rationed goods during the war or exotic goods from overseas say more than a hundred yrs back) or when we had to barter as we had no cash, certain gifts might have been impossible to get. Something not easy to come across would have been very special and valuable. (Even re-sellable if not needed.) But now we can all buy everything we need online, if we have the money, what's the point in exchanging gifts on bdays and at Xmas etc? (Usually there's little or no second hand value if unwanted, so they are given away or else go to charity where they will be sold on at a fraction of the purchase price.)
Better and more efficient to keep your money and spend it more wisely ... on something for yourself? (Or to get exactly what someone wants by letting them choose it/buy it together with you?)
In case of poor ppl and of wanting to help them, just give them the cash, so they can get what they really want or save up for something more expensive later? (Rather than what you decided to give them.)
Gift giving has had it's time/purpose prior to the widespread use of cash (eg when swapping your preserved fruit for your neighbour's eggs might have been mutually beneficial), but it's a tradition which needs to be phased out IMO, as it's now too wasteful in terms of time and money.
Even little kids probably know what the want these days (from TV ads and friends) so give them an amount of money and then let them choose how to spent it on their own presents?
If they are too young for that, they will probably happy with no gift at all ... or an empty box to play with?! 
It's the shops and companies/individuals who are selling us the gifts who don't want the madness to stop. They want us to continue panic buy expensive crap. So we are being conditioned to keep buying gifts ...for purely commercial reasons!
Everyone IMO needs to buy a bit less!