As for anyone else's projects, even though they promise to put you in front of the right people eventually, you have to have some small-time prototype to show before they put you through to the bigwigs. Whether you use the $15,000 offered to create that prototype or already have one doesn't matter I guess, however what does matter is that for improvements in ERP/CRM/WebOS/somebigtech there aren't any small prototypes that could represent the idea's viability better than a PowerPoint presentation already does.
So how about judging the idea just by its presentation itself? The other problem is that PG/RTM/TB aren't exactly industry veterans themselves. Any Dilbert in the country has a better clue of how things work in, say, the corporate world than a painter and a university prof. They wouldn't recognize a better CRM solution if they sat on it, and neither, I am assuming, have friends in the right places that they could consult on the matter. So seems like inventors would be better off beating down the door to the real guys.
Self organizing self regulating. Feedback is an essential component!
In that respect I found kuro5hin quite interesting in, as it seperates out how many people voted the post/comment up or down. I wrote posts that had a lot of people agree (5 points) and a lot disagree (1 point) with very few in the middle ground, i.e. the audience was divided. I loved that. It means you are not sucking up to the majority yet not writing utter crap. Had you just computed the point average then that information would've gotten lost.
And from what little you have said I get the distinct impression that you would be all up for the creatocracy when you realized that you would not be lumped in with everyone else and your voice was counted according to the merits of your history as well as your arguments.
Blame the government (or, dare I say, its unfettered expansion).