Of course they did! During the advent of personal computers there was plenty of hype and grand-visioning for a technology that had very little value until VisiC

Of course they did! During the advent of personal computers there was plenty of hype and grand-visioning for a technology that had very little value until VisiCalc triggered exponential growth. Same story for social networking (look at The WELL), the Web (Netscape practically invented insane-seeming hype-based valuations), many other examples. In fact, I can't really think of any part of the industry where "outcomes speak for themselves" -- I would have said quite the opposite is the norm.