More Reflections on the Use and Misuse of PowerPoint

I detest most power-point presentations, but I understand they have a role if well-done in some settings. Of the three power-point presentations I have ever made, here are the details:

1. a presentation at a corporate convention about the state of the economy. I was told I must use power-point for the presentation. It was my first experience with doing up the slides for one. My slides were mostly graphs or condensed tables (large fonts, lots of open space, small amounts of info on each slide) which I then discussed or explained.
2. a presentation for a local organization about the financial crisis. Again, very few points per slide, mostly talking points.
3. I then used that presentation about the financial crisis as the basis for one of my intro econ lectures last year.

I especially don't like power point in the classroom. It has the same drawbacks as fancy prepared overheads that we still see in some settings and that were so prevalent back in the 1980s: students don't know whether to copy down what is on the slide or to listen to the prof. And if the prof does little more than read the slides AND make them available online, students might as well take the course online; there is no reason to attend the lecture. 

I do make my lecture notes available online. However, these are cryptic notes and are certainly not substitutes for either the textbook or the lectures. 

I can readily imagine that some well-prepared powerpoint slides with animation, etc., could help explain some of the concepts better than I do on a chalkboard or using blank transparencies to write my notes on an overhead projector. But these slides need careful development to provide positive learning experiences rather than merely being dazzling displays of graphic design.

What I cannot imagine, though, is giving classes using only overhead slides or powerpoint slides provided by a textbook publisher. When I read this [h/t Craig Newmark], I was flabbergasted. Are there really professors who prepare so poorly and who are so poorly informed that they cannot do any better than read off slides prepared by someone else? Or is it just that they are trained and expected to give such horrible lectures?