I understand the justified criticism of the many dishonest and politically questionable things associated with cryptocurrencies and NFTs. But I don’t remember seeing such a complete dismissal of any tech in this industry before, and I can’t help but feel that’s unjustified

It's not the tech, it's how is applied and how it impacts us all whether we're involved or not.

As with any tech, we can risk some failed experiments to find a good one. But we can't have 100s of highly destructive ones in the vague hopes that eventually something will arise from the ashes.

Yes, I understand how PoW chains might be judged this way. As of now, whatever perceived value they provide is not in a sane relation to their cost

The ecological impact is my worst concern, but there's more. The Ponzi schemes will eventually crash. The stablecoins that are supposedly backed 1:1 by dollars are in fact not. Lots of people will lose all their money.

The real world economy might crash with it according to some authors. And crypto buyers are already averse to the existing system. So they're more like to turn to fascism, and get radicalised.

Even if cryptos become real currencies: a world where every bank prints its own money doesn't work. It only serves to suck up value. It exposes everybody to daily currency risk, where your salary is suddenly worthless in the currency of the shop you buy groceries from.