Drastically oversimplified explanations of complex problems. Technologically utopian solutions to said complex problems.

Okay. Yes. But at the same time in order to learn about a certain subject you need to start simple. When I watch a TED talk it is often about something I know nothing about. And it makes me interested. And then I find related things and read the comments and links people post in the comments. It's the first step on enlightening the larger population about a very specific, bizarre, and often boring topic. Sorry, I don't have time to go to university for 8+ years, write 2 thesis papers on the minutia of why or how we make decisions and whether or not they are rational or not.

But I can spend 17 minutes, get an interesting look at the subject and, then, use the ideas that he discussed in my everyday life. I now have a better understanding of decisions and rationality and irrationality, etc. In 17 minutes. Yes I don't completely understand all the details. Yes I could spend the next 50 years researching and studying and analyzing and realizing more fully what exactly rationality is - the different definitions, the different interpretations, and fully understand the reason I decide to have 10 drinks in a night and throw up everywhere. Or I could watch it and be more informed.

That is what TED is great at and that's why I don't care that it's a money grubbing circle jerk or whatever. It's interesting. It makes me more informed on subjects I would otherwise never choose to google and I can grasp the basics, even if they are dumbed down and are actually much more complex than the speaker made them out to be.