It is a cultural issue.
When I lived in America, everyone said thank you for gifts.
Here in Mexico, they never acknowledge gifts.
I got used to it.
You’d probably think it was less weird if you were, say a parent who wants to give an adult child a birthday gift but is absolutely terrible at buying gifts - or were the adult child who received those gifts. My mother missed the mark so badly when she used to buy me gifts that I only buy my adult children relatively inexpensive gifts that I won’t know if they used up or gave away. If there’s something specific that I know they want, I’ll buy it it, but aside from that they get money.
I send gifts to my kids whenever I see something I think they’ll enjoy. I’ve stressed to them that I don’t want a TY card. I find it awkward to recieve a card that then puts me in the position of tossing the card in the garbage (what else would I do with it?) plus trying to remiember to thank them fir the card.
A simple text: “hey dad, thanks for the gift certificate! We’ve been wanting to eat there.”.
While my wife and I did raise our kids to say “please” and “thank you”, because we consider it polite to do so, I never expect anyone to say “thank you” if I give them a gift - regardless of the form or amount of the gift. I certainly appreciate and accept “thank you” in any form but I believe anything offered with the expectation of return - any return - is not a gift. It’s an obligation.
I think you asked a similar question in the past and we will perhaps have to agree to disagree on this issue.
Personally I can not comprehend receiving a gift of any sort and NOT thanking the giver. Maybe not a note but effusive thanks in person or in e-mail for sure. Incomprehensible.
What about in-kind reciprocation?
I mentioned this in another thread, but my parents would stress every Christmas because their gift would have to be of equal or greater value than that received. So for me, a gift of $1000 value would mean I’d have to somehow find and finance a $1000 gift in return. Note that it doesn’t have to be all at once, but it eventually has to even out.
Fortunately, I’ve broken the cycle by accepting, though not giving holiday/birthday gifts, counting my sincere gratitude as my exchange. Usually stop receiving gifts after the first year knowing someone! 
Funny - in today’s Trib, the advice columnist answers a question quite similar to mine. Her response is also what my wife and I had come up with.
I think a thank you - verbal or written - is the right thing to do in response to a gift. Otherwise, it builds a sense that the gift is more an expected thing and requires no acknowledgement.
My family has family straightforward gift rules. Direct descendant, direct ancestors. When kids are small you get gifts for cousins, nieces, nephews and so on. It takes a lot of the stress out of it as the age out of the whole thing.
But a few years ago I got a back channel communication from my nephews and niece - all in their 20s/early 30s that they wished I’d just give them gift cards instead of gifts. This came through my younger sister who lives near them. So I just stopped getting them gifts at all. They’re now clearly on the ‘card’ list from this point on.
Well, I am both an adult child and a parent of adult children, but I don’t give them birthday gifts if they can’t come up with something that I can buy for them. “Your birthday is coming up, is there anything you need or want?” And my mother is the same - birthday gifts for adults are not obligatory in my family - so the idea of giving an adult cash because you don’t know something they would want is still weird, since if you can’t figure out what they’d like, you just don’t give them anything at all.
Maybe they acknowledge them in different ways; American protocol tends to be a lot more rigid and formal than what most Hispanics and Europeans are used to. Thank-you cards are something I only hear about from you guys, for example (heck, my last three wedding invitations were via whatsapp or email). I’ve been in many a Hispanic party or meal where individual thanks were a smile or a nod because the person giving them was already in two other conversations.
The Bros and I refer to that as “gratitude accounting” and we completely refuse to do it. A few times when Mom has started that rant, FinanceBro has demonstrated that he’s actually better at it than she is - he just chooses not to play the fucking game. After a couple of times, we can now get her to stop by threatening with calling him on the case.
This tit for tat thinking is the very root of the problem. In addition to being passive aggressive and petty.
This isn’t all that hard. Just give without ANY expectation. Give because you desire to give. Give because it pleases YOU to give. And for no other reason. Stop creating an obligation for the recipient with YOUR expectations. That is NOT how gifting is supposed to work, nor manners, I’m afraid.
Desperately needing every gift acknowledged has more to do with how it strokes your ego than manners, to my mind.
Learning to give without ANY expectation makes for a happier life and much more enjoyable giving. You should give it a try, all it takes is a change of attitude, after all. You done HAVE to care about it the way you’ve chosen to.
I’m pretty sure Miss Manners would point out that failing to acknowledge a gift is a lapse in etiquette but drawing attention to it is still bad manners.
Just one suggestion among many, and only an opinion. Wishing you Good Luck!
Since your gift comes with strings attached, I think you should stop giving them.
I understand that it is nice to get a thank you, but to get butt-hurt when you don’t get one, means that you should probably not give the gift in the first place.