PC Gaming

how do we break that?

I don't think this is something you can (or should be expected to) break. I think part of any successful project is encouraged adoption. Marketing - in a benign form - is about informing people of the project's utility and the mechanism for obtaining it. There are numerous examples of beneficial marketing campaigns - the annual flu shot campaign, union drives, public notifications for new amenities and works. We periodically have billboards across the city notifying residents of performances at Miller Outdoor Theater - a free public theater that puts on shows every couple of weeks.

I think there's a problem with deceptive marketing. And you can address that will quality journalism, civil litigation (particularly class action lawsuits), and government regulation.

That kind of sounds like our current systems favor investment into advertisement over substance

There's a huge yield in networking effect thanks to the size of corporate enterprises and the reach of their distribution.

I might argue a wide-scale anti-trust campaign to break up entrenched monopolies would force private businesses to return to quality of product over quantity of marketing. But Kickstarter reveals this isn't a problem unique to bigger business ventures.

I might try regulating Kickstarter such that the platform itself faces penalties for excessive marketing of products - particularly ones that never release in full.

I might also consider public financing for local clubs and independent non-profit business ventures. Because a lot of this hype happens in a kind-of social media vacuum. People get suckered into MLM scams and other duplicitous ventures because they're bored, alienated, and idle. Set up more public events and public areas for gathering and entertainment. Fewer people will be so terminally online that they are waiting around to get baited.