If I am investing in something I want a return for my investment* (be it a percentage of a company or a cut of some form), kickstarter and co seem to actively avoid this (various reasons from legal complexities to generally not being what they do). It has previously been said I should instead view it as a kind of ultra early preorder, which is a possibility but not one I am inclined to go with.
Scam or not... obviously fewer scams a whole would be a good thing but I would trust my own judgement before I write off an entire market of sorts -- I have general money, I can invest in any number of companies in any number of ways**, the vast vast majority of those companies and ways of investing would be a poor investment, I am not prepared to write off investment as a concept though.
Big publishers. No objections whatsoever, give or take specific things someone could so to make it unpleasant, and have never seen a general objection I can agree with. If it was solely for small guys to fund each other, it is not and kind of never was (even though it got used almost exclusively for it at first), then I guess it could count. It could see things get made that might not have quite as much financial merit but more artistic merit, and if the big publisher game industry is going to have such a low volume output to where a couple of bombs can tank them then drumming up cash like this can work for me.
Kickstarter started off as some kind of circular funding nonsense for layabouts to fund each other, not that I really have any problem with that (I might not care to endure the tedium of a beer or a conversation with such people but they are not really hurting anybody) and having cash sit there doing nothing is worse than cash actually flowing through/around in an economy. I might have an opinion on the cut they and similar services take for the service they offer, however it seems pretty plainly worded and is well covered when you sign up so it then falls upon the one setting up the crowdfunding effort.
*by and large the only thing I invest in is myself.
**in some countries I might be denied the chance to do some types of investment as I am not a known investor and thus I am covered by the laws designed to protect widows and the unwary.