[tptacek]

Snake oil implies that it does nothing, not that it doesn't do everything it's boosters claim it does. Snake oils were medicines sold as cure-alls with no active ingredients.

[girvo]

I wonder what the better pithy phrase would be then for "thing that is obviously useful, but is being hyped beyond it's (current) ability by those with a vested interest in doing so"

[tptacek]

You could reasonably call it "overhyped". People will disagree with you, but that's fine; you won't be making a falsifiable claim.

[akerl_]

That seems pretty par for the course for every major advancement in technology. So maybe just “capitalism”?

It’s hard for me to think of any piece of new tech that hasn’t been over hyped by the people selling it.

[girvo]

For sure. I'd argue this cycle is operating at a different scale though