The thing to keep in mind is this...

Regardless of our bad the industry may seem to you, it's not. Every industry has it's hacks, and shady dealers.

The thing is however, shady business typically don't last long. We can see this happen everyday in the hosting industry. It's an easy industry to get into, thus kids see this as an opportunity to "get rich". The problem arises when they don't get rich quick, and realize that there is a lot of work involved in running a business, and worse...they have no idea what they are doing, when it comes to business.

What happens? Well, when these "businesses" go out of business, it's because customers have learned their lesson, at least a little. This means the customer is a bit smarter now, when it comes to hosting.

This ultimately opens the door wide for legit businesses.

As far as the value of hosting. Remember that the Internet in it's current form, or any foreseeable form, could not exist without hosting or the hosting industry.