I always wondered why I never saw pledge like bounties on projects, which would have ensured that a product was actually being developed even if was for the testnet. As investors you set the rules, your the one that the project needs not vice versa. Investors failed to established a norm that would have prevented all this chaos and still are. ICO's are not the problem investors are. I was just looking at how Namecoin used
https://www.bountysource.com/ to offer a risk-free way of investors to be able to donate while being ensured that a product is actually built. We have failed to utilized the tools that have been right in front of us. Being blinded by greed.
Both investors and the developers are to be blame, sometimes the developers will be so serious with there project and investors won't give face to the project at all, and sometimes the project will have good idea but managed by bad developers and once investors invest in that kind of project they lose faith in others, do not blame investors, too many scam projects makes investors stop trusting projects
There's no one to blame other than the developers. After creating a solid project and gather more investors, they tend to stop the job and run together with the money they collected. Investors lost their trust to those kind of project. They will be more careful to the next following projects due to their own experiences in previous ICOs. Its hard to earn trust once you lost it. Without investors, ico will surely die soon.