Are IEO's the best present solution for all parties? Or simply the lesser of evils?
I would say that it is the latter -- the lesser evil -- compared to the usual ICOs which we experienced in 2017 and 2018. We have to acknowledge that indeed IEO is an improvement in fact a big jump ahead from the ICO days.
Only in some ways. In other ways, there are major drawbacks for smaller investors.
The earliest ICOs were completely accessible. Today, IEOs are run with various barriers to entry. They also seem heavily slated towards algorithms/bot and likely institutional traders who immediately buy up the offering before little guys get a chance.