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It's interesting how superficial some of the presentation designers can get. You don't need beauty to present data clearly and make it actionable.

I'd be interested in seeing some cost/benefit analysis on spending money on improving these kinds of presentation. Do you actually get a return from beautification projects like this.

Of course, there is a difference between bad presentation and competent. But I don't think Meeker's presentation is bad. Businessweek is just trying to attract controversy by throwing out "a crime against good design."

I work in a scientific field and we frequently get pitches by design firms trying to win work by spending money rebuilding paper presentations, etc. I think there is room to fix broken presentations. But there is diminishing returns from trying to improve a perfectly competent presentation.