Yes ICOs should make a comeback and ill tell you why.
A while ago I came across an article and it made total sense:
http://blockadvisor.io/2019/04/22/the-problem-with-ieos/IEO's are just the exchanges way of subversion of the ICO idea. The whole concept of the ICO is to allow average joes to get in on the ground floor in investments. Allowing for potential huge profits on the users end. To do this in traditional markets you HAVE to be an accredited investor. IEOs open it up so anyone can do it in a decentralized way.
The "scam' argument is played out at this point. Are there scams? Yes. But there are scams everywhere in life. You must DYOR and not invest more then you can give up. Too many people were throwing 100K at projects in 2017 trying to pretend to be institutional investors. You have to be able to spot the crap and not go in too hard if you cant afford to.
Second. Even in the traditional markets, there are tons of zombie corporations that do sh*t all. Horrible investments, yet they are still there. Welcome to planet earth. Not every investment is a good one.
Third. People need to understand that most ICOs are STARTUPS. With that said, most startups fail. This is jus how it is. Were looking for the gems in the rough, it's a gamble but the risk to reward is what makes ICOs attractive to high risk profile investors.
Fourth. I cant count how many IEOs ive seen release on exchanges and because the exchange made shady rules in the NDA the project in question fail. Ive seen exchanges hold up coins on the exchange, not letting coins be withdrawn, exchanges suppressing the price of coins so the can buy up the supply and more. Im not sure why so many people in this space are so trusting of exchanges and/or think these exchanges have YOUR best interests in heart. They don't. So furthermore, why do so many people want exchanges to hold the power of ICOs??
So yes as the link I shared states in the vision of satoshi, decentralization and giving the power to anyone who has the nuts to take a risk and does his research properly ICOs are superior to IEOs. Both for investors AND projects.