There are no freedom-fighting journalists in repressed countries using TOR.
There are only pornographers, BitTorrent users, crypto-haxxing "Z3r0cools" who use it to feel like they are doing something crypto-haxxy, and botnet command and controllers.
Countries in which TOR will be useful treat TOR users as de-facto criminals or block it altogether. Using TOR in a totalitarian state (and it is easily detectable) is worse than speaking out against the state.
Countries in which TOR is not needed are full of crypto-haxxing "Z3r0cools" who think they are actually helping someone by promoting TOR.
When you mention that TOR was an experiment-- one that failed-- to shield spies from foreign governments that crypto-haxxing Z3r0cools co-opted you get scorn.
When you point out that TOR fails in its primary purpose: non-attributable access to information or communications in totalitarian regimes you get scorn.
There is no space for criticism of TOR which makes it not a product or technology but a religion-like ideology.