They criticized blockchain, but still said it was useful. They didn't act like it had no utility, that's a strawman. When I see IBM advertising blockchain in the middle of football games to an audience who has no fucking clue what that means, or how little it is used in production, I know it's hype.

The blockchain is a useful protocol, but what you are describing doesn't even require it, just a few trusted sources, which blockchains have to fall back to, anyway, with trusted oracles.

Their larger point might be that as much a blockchain advocates love it, there's not a single mainstream application outside of Bitcoin 8 years later. Someone yesterday compared it to the hype behind torrents changing everything, though torrents might be more practically useful.