...I think everyone understood this to be the wild west. That doesn't mean all issuers are scammers -- there have been BTC security success stories.
Sure.
There have been scratch ticket lottery success stories too. Which doesn't mean investing in scratch tickets to make money is smart.
It's not.
Of course, if by "success stories" you mean traders making money, that has little to do with issuers not scamming. Many people made serious coin trading Labcoin, which "investors" are beginning to acknowledge is a scam.