> That is stupid. Which is more likely, that a useful heuristic sometimes misfires or that “our product might kill you” is a clever way to sell it? Death threats are a poor marketing strategy.

To consumers, maybe, but there's also marketing to investors, and the subtext there is "you can't risk not being involved in this." (I suppose there's also marketing to policy-makers, but that tends to be called lobbying and is easier to target.)

AFAICT most of these companies are more-focused on raising capital as opposed to becoming beloved by repeat customers. (Though customer-numbers do help when negotiating for investment funds...)

Also, that "or" becomes false-dichotomy whenever we go beyond the scope of a single advocate. With a group of advocates, some may be sincerely fearful while others may be making coded brags.