The Verge argues that tech companies have chased hype cycles (NFTs, metaverse, LLMs) driven by VC incentives rather than solving real user problems. The metaverse and NFT markets have largely collapsed with early investors holding worthless assets, validating the core claim—though LLMs remain contested since they do have functional enterprise and consumer use cases despite hype-driven adoption. The column skips over where these technologies actually added value and focuses critique on VC incentive misalignment without exploring why genuine innovation sometimes comes wrapped in hype.