One criticism from Molly White I read last cycle that I did actually agree with, which was that crypto is strangely self-referential. The social layer is filled with a lot of already crypto-pilled people, telling other already crypto-pilled people why crypto is good/valuable. You don't really see this in other spaces, I'd say it comes across slightly as cope, people who need to keep convincing themselves they're right

Arguably this just arises from a defensive position since it's also true that no other industry also faces as much criticism, fud, etc.

Truth. Start to finish. 

To your last point, we can't say some of the criticism isn't deserved. Crimes are being committed in the open and it's all recorded on social media and on-chain. Yet plenty of bad actors remain as prominent figures within the industry