You seem to be positing an absolute: that an ICO can't behave transparently by nature. Which isn't true. ICO and transparency aren't mutually exclusive.
No, but there's a huge difference in the amount of oversight token holders have on an ICO, and the amount of oversight that VCs have on a startup.
It's certainly possible to structure an ICO in such a way that token holders will get board seats, proper auditing, etc, but I've yet to see one that is.
It's certainly possible to structure an ICO in such a way that token holders will get board seats, proper auditing, etc, but I've yet to see one that is.