I believe this statement is highly subjective.
Form my perspective, they do. Always!

People are very well aware of the lung cancer, but they continue to smoke anyway. How is this not their choice?

People are mostly well aware of the consequences aof consuming fast-food and sweets but they continue to eat it in large quantities. How is that not their choice?

The same is with alcohol (ab)use. Who’s pouring it down their throat?

I believe Viktor Frankl wrote that even the people suffering in German concentration camps had a choice - electric fence. But they chose the suffering. Not my words.

I believe that the vast majority of the time people are not aware, or not willing to take responsibility for their actions (and ignorance).

Now, there are two ways to understand this, the steelmanning or strawmanning method. And it makes all the difference in the world.

https://medium.com/illumination-curated/how-to-boost-your-intelligence-level-and-pursue-wisdom-a2f8d7a0b7bf