As a creator if you have an idea for a currency you can release it without permission, and if people like it they will give you money.
The alternatives are bootstrapping, which is exhausting and what I've done. Have rich friends - you likely won't if you are poor. Or get accepted to some investment signaling filter like YC where you get to run as fast as you can for months while uprooting your life.
Edit: It won't let me reply to you, but ya I think ICOs can be legit. See ETH, WTC, SNM. There are bad actors too, but at it's best it's a way to route investment capital to creators regardless of socio-economic condition or location. You are correct that you have to tie the value of the chain back to they success of the product somehow. One way would be to share dividends.
Moreover, I don't see how ICOs offer anything to people without a lot of disposable income. They are simply too high risk for anyone who doesn't already have quite a bit of money they can afford to lose. At best they offer a way for people who are already in the top 1/3 of income earners to speculate and find greater fools among the slightly more wealthy.
Am I missing some fundamental value of ICOs as an instrument for investment?
