> Also it pre-selects for people who don't say, "But this story makes no sense whatsoever" after your pitch.

Thanks for exposing your biases, but you are wrong. It's more of a quid-pro-quo exchange on some of these MLMs or trying to be supportive of someone else's venture in your community. Nearly all know it is overpriced and not necessarily what they need, but it is the rapid exchange of social capital that keeps those communities the way they are. Before MLMs it was casseroles, cookies, tools, helping hands, and babysitting.