The big thing that people get caught up on is the fact that the space is essentially permissionless and because of that there is no regulation meaning everyone is entirely responsible for themselves, a level of responsibility that is foreign to most people. Anyone can make anything they want, which will inevitably lead to projects that outright scams, or fail because of bugs or misaligned incentive structures. Of course these are the projects everyone here loves because it reaffirms their belief that the entire space is a scam.

I think the real story is the insatiable appetite for get rich quick schemes in today's world, because without that many of these projects would simply not be used. IIRC they had some insane yields of like 50k% apy on their token, anyone with any sense would know to run away from anything promising that.