OK, this is tangential to your post and the OP but … using Groupon as an example of anything other than shell games and Ponzi schemes strikes me as more than a little bit naïve.
From YC's recent batch, sure, we've got Makr.io and ReelSurfer that would be classified as "startup porn" by the OP, but you cannot discount Double, Dreamforge, Coco Controller are in the business of selling, addressing customer's pain points and actually being meaningful to its users. Customers are not naïve. His gross oversimplication of the startup industry by quoting Pinterest as dumbification of society is what bothers me.