I would argue that this is not the case. Cryptocurrency was made to allow trading peer to peer, in effect avoiding the middle man (i.e. banks and other ironically centralized institutions). "The blockchain " protecting people has never been and never can be a talking point, as the blockchain is merely a ledger, that's designed to track transactions. That's it.

As far as not "adding value" I don't believe that to be accurate, about crypto itself or the underlying technology that makes it run. Blockchain technology very much has a place in our society moving forward when it comes to data storage, transference, peer to peer transacting, etc; so to say anyone involved is a fool waiting to be separated from their money is silly and wrong.

Scams are unfortunately a part of the world we live in, and in an unregulated space like cryptocurrency, this can be a huge issue. Regulations that allow for growth and maturity in the space are necessary to prevent these things and protect people from scam artists a la SBF.

TL;DR not everything in the blockchain space is a scam.